Never Nothing
by Rakusa
Summary: Nothing sounded good to him, nothing meant there wasn't anything to hurt him, nothing meant that he couldn't feel the loss if he never had it, never had her.
1. Part 1

Never Nothing

10/19/2010

Sum: Nothing sounded good to him, nothing meant there wasn't anything to hurt him, nothing meant that he couldn't feel the loss if he never had it, never had her.

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AN: God, I've been toying with this thought in my head now for quite some time. I really shouldn't be starting this, but I must.

AN2: Prayin for a 1 part, if not, 2 part. We'll find out at the end of part 1 in the EAN how this is going... erg... fine, it's going to be 2 parts... and you'll all hate me.

AN3; Ok, let me clarify something that we haven't gotten straightened out yet... or at least, I haven't mentioned. It is Mamo PoV third person and it's kind of a look into his psyche and parallel universe to our disastrous R story.

* * *

Part 1

**_Flashforward- Neo-Tokyo_**

King Endymion sat looking out at the sea of roses, but it wasn't the flowers that held his attention, at least, not the flowers that were categorized as such in any scientific journal. No the flowers that held his attention were the two females sitting on a picnic blanket amongst them. It would be the easy way out to say that he had created them, as he had created and controlled the flowers surrounding the two most beautiful blossoms he'd ever seen. But in fact, it was quite the opposite. Without the one, he wouldn't be here now, and the other... well she wouldn't be there either. The most beautiful, even beyond the one he had a hand in creating... she'd always have been here, at this very moment of this very day. These surroundings were made for her and despite all the words and promises, this was her destiny. He was just brought along for the ride.

Without Serenity, none of this would have happened. She was the thing that made everything worthwhile. The one that had made everything happen. She was his everything.

**_FlashBack- Tokyo- Pre-S1_**

The early days were the worst. The days when he was by himself, and not knowing what to do with his newly acquired freedom. The logistics of his flight from the most recent group home were unimportant and complicated.

He'd been sloughed around from group home to group home, to foster care, back to the orphanage and then sent out again, for another test run with whoever was brave enough to bother with him, or rather, who was low on funds for the week and needed another write off in form of a child.

All the while, he watched new kids enter and leave quickly, all snatched up before they could even think of unpacking. Mamoru had gotten used to living out of his suitcase, but that wasn't the point, he had to learn the hard way. He'd unpacked half a dozen times.

Nobody had wanted him in those days. He was a burden on everyone and everything. Everything crumbled. Nothing remained the way it was before he'd entered into the equation. He was a nothing, a nobody. Nothing he did made any difference, being the good boy, the smart boy, the smiling boy, the chipper one, the moody one, the cranky one, nothing. Nobody wanted him, and he'd grown to want nobody in return. When all he really wanted was a family, to go home, smiling like the other kids that were chosen.

He still couldn't understand why nobody had picked him. He was a cute kid by all accounts, even the warden had told him that. Yet nobody stooped down to his level and told him that he was going home with them to stay. In all honesty though, he couldn't image going to live with another family and pretend they were his parents, he didn't remember his, never had a memory, nothing to go by except a photograph, but that didn't mean anything. He still wouldn't have listened to them as if they were his own. Perhaps that was why he wasn't chosen, even at age six, he was too old. Especially with his scarred past and memories.

Nobody wanted to take him on.

He ran away from the last shelter he'd ever step foot into, when he was fourteen. He was barely eligible to work in a fast food restaurant, much less find a job to support any way of living. His bank accounts were all under his control though, and he _was _smart, and he was a good forger.

He'd spent nine years bouncing around from one place to the next, it was a skill he developed and worked well in life. He took on odd jobs that required him to be constantly on the move, to fill in at places he'd never heard of, didn't know where they were. He got around and it was on one of those side trips to a place he would never normally step foot into, that he was _discovered_. Or at least that's what they kept telling him they did.

Mamoru never thought that he needed to be discovered, never knew he'd been lost in the first place. Still didn't think he was ever not where he was supposed to be, that he was uncovered and found. But that was probably more of a difference in terms than real life application.

It would be awhile yet before he realized that those terms all did apply to him, that he id need to be found, but it wasn't by those at that time, but much later in life, by someone he never thought could find her own shoe, much less uncover all of his layers.

That was much later. Albeit only a few years down the road, he still had much to learn before he could begin to comprehend the whirlwind that was about to disrupt all of his ideas about life.

The hardest part of those early days wasn't the financing or the forging or the lying. He lied about his age, and people didn't look too closely and every year the lie got closer to the real number as they met to meet up with each other. After awhile he could stop lying and he did. At least to everyone else, and for awhile there, he did a pretty good job at convincing himself that they weren't lies he was telling himself.

No the hard part of those early days was the solitude. A solitude that he'd always dreamt of, but having it was disconcerting. It was quiet when he let himself into his apartment, and there was no food bought and cooked, waiting to serve it to the masses. He'd had to help out in the kitchen growing up, they all had shifts, and he did everything better than most. He was an efficient cleaner, liked it clean and neat and organized, and didn't think it that much work to do so, despite the protests of some of the other children. He cooked well, everything done according to the directions exactly, no creativity or changes to the recipes, no minor adjustments or a grain too much.

They were steps that he just hadn't thought about in his planning to be rid of the lifestyle he was suffering through, forced into without asking him what he wanted. He was unlike most of the children there, he had options and the financial backing to do whatever he wanted when he left. He needed a good education though, to prove he had the brains and talent though to continue on in his path.

So school by day, applying and presenting papers to the teachers that his 'parents' had signed, with remarkable different handwriting from each other and his own, that it wasn't thought to possibly be a forgery. Why would they care either way when he presented a check for tuition and papers regarding him, stating that the parents were out of town, busy business people and couldn't come in the traditional way. Only through correspondence. If they even thought for a moment that everything was faked, they disregarded it and attributed it to his genius and had no interest in tossing him out. He would do them more good within their halls than out on the streets or worse, in another school. What did it matter to them what his family background was?

He worked by night and early mornings, even leaving school to be pulled into a photo shoot. It wasn't instant, his fame had to build, but all of a sudden everyone wanted him. He went from a nobody to a somebody and everyone wanted him to be their boyfriend, to do their shoots, to model on their runway, to walk in their clothes, even just down the street. To be photographed with him while he was still the 'it' thing. He was a somebody now, not nothing. Yet he still felt like nothing as he walked into his empty apartment, void of all things except essentials.

Everyone wanted him, but he wanted none of them. Nobody wanted _him_.

**_Flashback- Tokyo- Pre-S1_**

He didn't know when he had gone from wanting to fill the void in his life and in his apartment to relishing it.

His apartment was the only sanctuary he had from the gaggle of girls flocking his every move, not even knowing his status as a model or on billboards, rather wanting him only for his looks and money. He'd understood the fame and the draw he had on them. He understood the money. He did not understand the looks being the only contributing factor to being sought after. Not when he'd had them his entire life, in one way or another. His looks wasn't enough to be adopted. Why should they be enough to send hearts fluttering and minds racing to the day they could get him to put a ring on their fingers? At least a child left the family after eighteen.

He leaned against the solid door after letting himself in. It had been a hectic battle to run away from the adoring female crowd, each trying harder than the last to get his attention. Yet not one of them knew anything about him other than his looks. Or in some cases, what they could find in a magazine. He avoided all interviews with reporters, so the information was slim.

The apartment was blissfully empty of all annoyances. He had his couch and recliner, a large screen TV that he hardly used. A study opposed to his kitchen, which were both fully stocked. And everything about the place screamed: neat! It was organized, everything had a place and was in it, nothing was left out or dis-accounted for. This truly was his sanctuary. Nobody knew where he lived, nobody had been in it and nobody had the number to the phone connected dutifully to the wall in the patrician separating the kitchen from the living room, without closing off spaces. He payed the telephone bill every month, though he only used it to order in food once a week. He never had to go to the grocery store, there was a set up of timely food being delivered each Sunday evening from the local grocer with the same food delivered at the same time every time.

Nothing could break this little habitat he created for himself. He would never let anything in to do so. Not even a girl. Especially not a girl. If he'd learned anything these past few years, was that girls were the worst, and he'd rather burn in hell before letting one single girl near his place.

Guys weren't so bad, but if one of them caught a glimpse of this place, it would be in shatters before he even knew what hit him. There'd be parties that he couldn't control, or even get invited to. All the guys he knew were either models or in high school and still living with their folks. No guys weren't as bad as girls, but he didn't even have any guy friends, and none of them were respectful enough to invite over. If he met one, then his opinion might be swayed on the matter, but he doubted that would happen.

His apartment had everything he needed. Nothing was missing, and he never wanted for anything anymore. Even this place, void of all life except for him, meant something to him. He owned it, he lived in it, and he lived life how he wanted to. One boring day after the next, his only real excitement was escaping the fan club, but even that he worked out into a system. And his dreams were clockwork, just the way he liked them. Even if he didn't like the dream.

His mornings was filled with modeling, his days with school, his afternoons with untangling himself from female hands and his evenings modeling again. His nights however, were filled with dreams and systematically crossing off every jeweler in Japan and avoiding detection and police. He never took anything, so they could only charge him with entering, as he didn't break anything either, if they ever caught him.

Everything fit into the slots he created for it. His life was like his pantry. Everything had its place and he knew exactly how much belonged in each and everything ran like clockwork. One screw loose, and the whole thing would fall apart. But he kept checking on it, and maintaining it.

**_Flashback- Tokyo- S1_**

He wasn't expecting the clock he maintained so diligently to be demolished when he wasn't looking. For that's what happened. He glanced away for one tiny minute second and a blond girl with her hair in an odd style pig-tails took a mallet and smashed up his clock to smithereens and enjoyed doing it. When he looked back, there was no trace of what it had been before, no trace of himself in that rumble, and no way to save it. It looked fake sitting there on the ground, pulverized to dust in places by the heel of her boot. Like it had never been a clock at all, but sand running through an hourglass, running out.

By the time he looked up, something new had taken its place, but he still couldn't see it clearly. There were too many tears clouding his vision, mourning what he had lost, even if it was fake, it was what he had.

He wasn't a person to wax poetry, but somehow the lines began popping into his head after his first sight of her. He'd just turned eighteen, and so she had just turned fourteen, the same age when he took his life by the horns and changed its direction. Whether or not that new direction he carved out for himself would have led anywhere, will never be seen, but he did take control of his own life. Which was something that the blond had lost about the same time in her life.

She had changed schools, as was the norm at that age, and was still always late to class. However now, her path intersected with his own. He was just walking out of the coffee shop when she would sprint by, and all he would see was a blond blur and he wouldn't think much of it, other than that kid needed to slow down. This became habit, and he could almost set his watch by it.

He should have realized just then and there that there was a problem. As he couldn't set his watch by it. In fact, he would wait for her to run by before he left, never realizing that the time differed every day by minutes or seconds, neither of which would have made any difference to anyone else, except Mamoru.

It was on one of these days that he had waited for her to whoosh by that he arrived to class, and was just in time for the late bell. Everyone had looked at him and he had stared back. They must have thought him sick to be so tardy, even if he was still on time. It was the first inkling he had that something was off, but poor, poor Mamoru had no idea what was coming towards him.

A few days later found Mamoru changing his pattern, not something he took lightly and he was opposed to do. Every day was a battle during that week, to continue on a pattern that he had abandoned to avoid the blond blur. He went back to his highly regimented, timed activities, trying not to base it off of the girl whizzing past the building. It was with increasing frustration that he realized she differentiated her time so much that there was not even a guesstimate to when she would arrive to the cross-section with his life.

It was on this one unfortunate date, a week after Mamoru realized he had laxed in his tidy schedule that found him on the street corner as the blond zoomed by, the wind, speed and closeness upended him as she continued on her path. Papers scattered everywhere as Mamoru fell backwards and caught himself on the ground, the thud jarring his arms and bottom where he landed. Another blond, a male this time chuckled down at him. "Let me help you. She's a speedy one, that girl." He scooped to gather the flyaway papers.

"She's a menace. She's like a hurricane." She hadn't touched him, hadn't run into him or anything, her pure speed and agitated movements had caused all of this destruction, not just to his schedule, but his body and papers as well.

The blond boy laughed again. "I guess you could call her that." He held out his hand and helped Mamoru back to his feet. "I just call her Usagi."

Mamoru's lips twisted, _rabbit_. It kind of figured. "Too bad it isn't Tasmanian Devil. Though I can see the energizer bunny in her too."

The blond let out a hearty laugh at that one. "Come, I'll get you a cup of coffee and you can come up with more names to describe our resident Speedy Gonzales."

"That's a good one." Mamoru hadn't gotten his cup of coffee yet, and figured this place that the blond was opening the door to was as good as the one that he attended. Though entering the room, it was louder, as machines beeped and people chatted, but he found he liked it and he liked this blond's company. "Though jackrabbit might be a bit too obvious in connection to its construction counterpart." Names filtered through like Bugs Bunny and the bird that faced the coyote and Katrina and class five, and others that were equally good if not better.

By the time Mamoru checked his watch, he realized he had spent too long chatting with Motoki. "I must go, but I hope none of this passes onto her, she didn't cause any damage. I would hate to cause her any undue ridicule."

"Don't worry. She's like a sister to me. I won't say anything to her." Motoki refused to let Mamoru pay for drinks. "Just come back tomorrow. I'll be here." Motoki was a year older than Mamoru, and so his schedule was a little different and Mamoru agreed.

Somehow that one drink in the morning turned into two, one in the morning and one after class. Though the second one took a little while longer to join the rest of his newly developed time organization.

It was another two weeks before he was leaving the arcade that he now visited, to see the blond guy, who it hadn't yet occurred to Mamoru to consider a friend, but that's what he was, when his life was completely blown apart, though he would try to hang onto the tatters and keep it together best he could afterward when the dust settled.

Recall all the girls who had been trying to get Mamoru's attention? Each one worse than the last? That day it had been worst than ever before. The arcade was still relatively quiet, and no one bothered him there, as it was mostly male gamers anyway, but before that, it had been enough for Mamoru to escape badly, but to escape nonetheless. He was looking away from the street in front of him to look down at the traffic crossing in the opposite direction, to see how much time it would be before they could cross when something landed on top of his head.

It was a rolled up ball of paper and he snagged it and crushed it within his palm. His anger growing and getting the best of him before he saw who it was or what it was that had fallen on him. This was the last and final straw. It was so ridiculous, to think that they could get his attention by throwing paper messages at him, and hoping he'd respond. Well he would, this time they would not get off easily. "Yo, Odango-Atama!" His hand clenched the paper so tightly that his fingertips were digging into his palm and he was growing red as the girl didn't seem to realize that he was talking to her at first. "Odango-Atama, what do you think I am? A trash can?"

Shockingly blue eyes turned to him, confused at first, and then growing angry at his insult. Which was fine by him, if she thought she could get away with something so juvenile as throw her love letters at him. He opened the paper to sneer her words back at her, sometimes they were so disgusting and raunchy he had to be sure first he wasn't splewing kinky stuff at her in a public area. What he saw surprised him, but he was already so very angry, he couldn't stop the words.

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EAN: Ok, ok, so... I change my mind again. It's going to be 3 parts, count them, only three. So what do we think so far? Like it, love it, hate it? Want to burn it, or rather Mamo-chan, or want to bathe him in chocolate? I know which I'd like, and I think I know what Mamo-chan would like, but I'm not sure its listed above... hehe...


	2. Part 2

Part 2

_Flashback- Tokyo- S1_

"Forget I even said anything, apparently with your grades, you wouldn't know a person from a trashcan." She sputtered at him for a moment and he continued. "I can see that someone like you would easily make that kind of mistake." He patted her on her blond head. "Just don't make that mistake again. I'm a human. I don't recycle failing tests."

She snatched it out of his hand, her anger taking over her shock at being addressed in such a fashion. "W-w-hy you!" She shoved the failing grade, and failed attempt at throwing it out, now with her anger, it would be impossible to pretend it had just fallen out. "I know what a trash can is! But you can see my mistake when your large mouth has nothing but garbage in it!" She spun on her heel and took off before he could respond to that one, and he was impressed by how much it stung. He wasn't a large talker by any stretch of imagination, but it did go to suggest that when he did talk, it was rubbish. Except all she heard from him were insults, and it was very unlikely that they would ever need to speak to one another again, and the likelihood of that happening at all was slim to none. He'd never interact with the girl again, they would just never have the opportunity to run into one another again.

He kind of felt bad, she hadn't been doing what he thought she was, she hadn't even been paying attention. Maybe his words were too harsh? He pushed it aside, as he already told himself, he'd never see her again and so would never have an opportunity to apologize, so he shouldn't let it bother him. It was a little bit of a struggle to do so, since he wasn't generally rude to strangers, especially ones that probably didn't deserve his ire, but eventually he managed to forget it and forget his run in with her.

At least, until the next time.

_Side-Backflash- Tokyo- S1 _(an: ie as in... not following above line into the next portion, but if you want to... skip ahead another backflash... or is it, flashback? hehe...)

Mamoru prided himself on getting in and out of jewelry stores unnoticed and going to ones uninhabited when he arrived, except for maybe light security. He also kept an eye out for all exhibits featuring any rare gems or jewels or jewelry or any sort at museums and art exhibits and special showings in the area and even some further out.

So it was with great resign that he realized that this time, he managed to accomplish none of his self-proclaimed feats. He'd been caught on camera once or twice, and his name synonymous with expensive items, but nothing had ever been taken, and so no one really cared or took much notice. They even named him, and it was kind of a lame name, if he could correct them, he would. Who would ever want to be called something they could clearly see?

Then he broke his very first and most important rule of all. Not getting involved. Whether it was stopping a robbery in progress or seeing a mugging outside the store's window. Though the latter hadn't happened, the former is what caused the only ire of the public on his alter-ego. He'd witnessed a few thefts of jewelry stores over the years, and a few during select showings of important gems with the highest security, which he'd managed to slip through. Somehow he'd developed the trait of slipping pass armed guards, and it was an ease that led him to believe he'd done it before.

And he was good at it.

So this time, when he'd heard of a jewelry store having a blow out-sale, he figured they got in a huge new shipment and was trying to move the older product. Like the times that the store was robbed before he could check it out, he wanted to be the first to examine all of the items before they disappeared into oblivion or the many hands they'd get passed to. With the robbers, he lifted it off of them, inspected it, then returned it to the store, or led a trail to them. Either way, the robbers got caught, or had no product to their efforts, but still, he did not get involved.

This time, his plan was only to slip into the warehouse, where the products not for sale were being held, to inspect them and get out. However, moments after entering the building he realized that the sale was still going on, well past the hours listed, and rolling over into the night time to such a level that was a little suspicious. He hung to the rafters, seeing the woman in charge of the herding of the masses and the redhead that was tugging at her arm, with no success.

He was about to leave when the woman tossed aside the girl and the girl cowered as the woman turned on her. He hesitated, about to break his rule when the cavalry arrived. It was such an amusing cavalry too.

A girl about as equally young as the one on the ground, with a black cat in tow. She looked out of place, almost as out of place if not more so then he did. He felt a little bit of kinship growing with the strange girl as he thought that. They both wore very strange outfits to a jewelers. His while formal wear, hers belonged on pinup magazines back in the fifties, though even that outfit wouldn't fly back then, it was _waaayy _too revealing especially for a time when they had pinup girls, but it fit the times as it was a sailor uniform.

Then he understood the redundancy of the media as she informed, with the help of her cat to tell her, who she was, to the woman orchestrating the entire thing. It was then that he could place that what he was feeling was not just the case of a flu, but a warning that something was off.

He hung out above them to see what would happen. Sailor Moon, as the girl announced, had absolutely no skill in dealing with this woman. She was grossly out numbered, and thrown in without knowing what to do or how to do it, or frankly, why she was there. He was about to pull her out and take care of things for her, and then give her a tongue lashing about being in a location she had no business being in, when she started bawling.

He covered his ears in time as a shattering wail pushed away all of the zombie-infested patrons of the store, leaving her with a bit of breathing room. Ok, he had to reconsider his thoughts, maybe she should be there, just not so unprepared, she obviously had power if that was anything to go by. He only hoped that wasn't her only skill, it would be an easy one to circumvent in future attacks, if this was to be a pattern.

The enemy only had to get noise-blocking headphones and she'd be dead. She seemed so charming too, from what he could see in her interactions with the cat and her concern over the whimpering redhead.

He sat there, to see what she would do next, and she slowly rose to her feet, the black cat jumping onto her shoulder. He was enjoying the sight very much, more so than he thought he should. It wasn't just the fight and how she would handle it, that he was enjoying, and that much would be true of any male.

She was wasting the time that she had managed to create as the black cat whispered in her ear. They would be upon her again before she could even react and a red rose formed in his hand, unnoticed and uncalled for. He glanced at it then let it fly down to her feet as the woman changed and attacked. It sliced through the attack and gave the girl precious more time. However it gave all the viewers knowledge that the girl was not alone and where he was hiding. He jumped to his feet and came into view. "Trust in yourself, Sailor Moon. You can defeat this enemy."

She nodded, unsure of even his words but was bolstered by them and reached for the object the cat told her would be her main weapon. It was the tiara on her forehead and Mamoru couldn't help but feel that perhaps she really shouldn't be a warrior if her attacks consisted of crying and using a headband, even if it looked to be made of gold.

Then the jewelry began to shimmer in a faint silver color. Undetectable to the naked eye, but his mask supplied him with a filter he had not known to exist until then. He could see the black around the woman, but not within her, and a faint wooded brown around the cat. He frowned as the girl let loose the silver disc towards the woman's newest creature, which parted with the woman's body and sliced through it. The black disappeared and part of the silver seemed to be pulled from the girl. But he felt it just the same, as if he'd done the attack, though he did not feel weakened, instead he felt rejuvenated.

It was a strange feeling and the girl slumped towards the tiny redhead still cowering and held a hand to her cheek, and even though there was an initial flinch from the redheaded child, she soon leaned into Moon's touch. The girl seemed to have forgotten about him and he used that to his advantage and would have slipped around them into the supplies to see what was left of the jewelry, see if what he wanted was there, but the cat's red eyes were trained on him and a look of mistrust on its face.

He tipped his hat towards the cat and then disappeared. As he was leaving though, he heard the girl's voice. "Where did he go? I wanted to thank him." It sounded familiar though different too and he could not place it, though he had only a few female voices to which he could compare it to.

_Flashback- Tokyo- S1_

After that initial encounter with the self-proclaimed senshi of the moon and his strife with a blond girl he has yet to truly place, he had no further interruptions for quite some time. Even the fan club seemed to have disappeared. The run-in had occurred on Wednesday, and it was now Friday.

Shutting the door against the outside world, Mamoru suddenly felt at a loss. He had more stimulation these last few weeks after meeting Motoki, and for that it was refreshing. He had a verbal spar with a girl, even if it was short lived and he had a new ability, one beyond the strange formal wear. The girls that followed him had not been there on Thursday and he figured it was either a fluke or a blessing but it would return, it always did. The idea that it continued to elude him on a Friday made him feel once again like a complete nothing. He had not even seen the whirlwind these last few days. He had gone about the rest of his days like normal, but without those two strange staples to his life, he missed it, however faintly. Mostly because it ruined how his day went.

He was home too early and he could not start his homework, it was not yet time in his allotted schedule. If he started it now, then he would have free time before he went to bed that he would not know how to fill. If he went to bed earlier than normal, then he did not know what would happen with the dreams and then the following day would be skewed. No, he needed to fill this blank of time now with something else.

He also missed the attention, no matter how much he attempted to avoid it, it meant that he was part of the day, anyone's day beside his own and thus existed in the world.

So he made the first of many trips to the arcade after class. However his reasonings for this trip would not hold true to the rest; but it was because of this trip that he changed his schedule once again. It was barely a passing, he had not seen her until she was gone and her words lingered, echoed by the man's in parting. "Seeya Motoki-kun!"

"Bye Usagi!"

Mamoru entered the arcade and sat down and started off by asking about the tornado that just passed him and if it was generally her habit to be there at this time.

"Usually." Motoki agreed. "Depends on whether or not she gets detention. Then she's here later and stays for less amount of time. How have you been since this morning? Ready for another round?"

"Please."

He didn't know why he came, didn't know it was to see that girl, even if it was just a glimpse and no real details. He came on the weekend too, the first weekend he ever stopped for a coffee instead of picking one up and going. He liked Motoki, found him affable. He was also polite and responsible, running his own arcade and small food joint. Despite everything, Mamoru found himself enjoying his time with another person to keep for company.

He did affect someone's day and it wasn't negatively, if it was anything to account of. He no longer went home to the solitude and wonder if anyone would remember even seeing him, only for reason of police questioning and alibi, he assured himself. The silence that greeted him when he went home that evening to start in on homework was a refreshing sound, one that eased his soul, he could make changes and still be unaffected and keep to his schedule and his peace of mind. This was a pleasing alternative to escape the female hordes. The rest of his evening went by like clockwork, and he even found himself humming along to a tune playing in the arcade as he checked out the newest jeweler.

_Flashback- Tokyo- S1_

Monday after his newest change in schedule had things returning slightly backwards on his as of yet still ticking clock. It had hiccups and snags every once in awhile, but it still ran. Going backwards in time however, was not what Mamoru wanted in the least.

So when the first girl caught sight of him, irritatingly so, thinking he differed in his path but should have known he wouldn't, they had finally found him again. In the same spot and time they normally found him and even they fit in neatly with his plans, he found it quite a nuisance. He had anticipated that they would leave him alone now. That however was not the case and only later would he realize that Thursday and Friday had been a holiday shared between family members and so was left alone only for that reason and the weekend following often had the same girls with the same family and even possibly out of town.

With one step back, it was later in the day as he finished his coffee with Motoki had things jumped sporadically forward, beyond what would even be a return of the correct schedule. Somehow with the entrance of one girl, it pushed away half of the fan-club, the other half just became more annoying and insistent.

There was nothing to trip her, and somehow she ended up in his lap. His reaction was worse than it should have been, it was a flying off the handles of what a girl would attempt and the words were once again out of his mouth before he saw who it was. In fact, when he saw who it was, it made him angrier. He thought perhaps she hadn't been as innocent as she pretended to be the last time they had an interaction. "What do you think you're doing? Is it virtually impossible for you to stay on your feet, or do I just have some type of magnetic draw?"

His words caught as he caught sight of the familiar hair but he'd already started and he caught the attention of everyone in the arcade. The world hung on a moment of silence, waiting to see what the blond would do, everyone knew her, and knew she hadn't deserved such treatment, and if she looked sad, they would all jump to her defense, if she laughed it off and walked away, they would support her decision to do that as well.

Instead she was on the verge of apologizing when he laid into her, she had tripped over something, though it was probably in her imagination, because there was never anything there, but her own feet. She had just lifted her head when he started talking and she was still intending on apologizing until she caught sight of his face. She recognized him. "You!" She screeched. "What do you want from me?" She groaned. "I didn't mean to hit you with the test or fall into you! You're such a jerk! It's been _accidents_!"

He snorted, and the door opened to the arcade as a guy walked in, the girls had all pressed their faces against the windows to watch, respecting that this was a male domain. It was either unfortunate timing or a blessing, he didn't really care, as the door opened just as he spoke, so all the girls could hear him. "Accidents! How many accidents do you have in a day? Are you really such a child?"

The fire that burned in her eyes at his words was strangely appealing, and it was something he strive for every time he spoke to her after this day. He did not know then that he could have gotten the fire another way, a way that wouldn't have had tears welling up shortly after, but rather a smile that accompanied it. She retorted with some barb then and he felt the pain in his stomach from her quick wit and powerful words.

This behavior between them continued for months, and every day that it happened, Motoki fretted about the girl, and threatened to send him on his ear if he didn't behave. However after a few months had passed, Motoki stopped threatening him, and started rolling his eyes at their antics. Then Motoki and Mamoru got closer as friends, doing things outside of the organized coffee stops. Mamoru never realized that the lengths of these arguments varied significantly in length every day, or that when she came, wasn't a guarantee either. He should have been more observing, having realized something was not right. But Mamoru was an idiot, he'd thought all of his carefully planned life would be able to weather this insignificant girl and this insignificant change without affecting anything else.

_Flashback- Tokyo- S1_

Life continued on a fairly normal pace, but he should have known that anything that included Usagi was only disguised as normal, when it truth, it was anything but. He even ignored the odd interruptions into his night time activities. He not only was screwed up after school, but also had daily morning run-ins with the girl before her class, no longer barely bypassing her but instead being run into with force and without any way to avoid it, not even changing the time he walked to class. She always managed to run into him. Even if it wasn't the same corner. After that first day, it was like he couldn't escape it anymore, that they were now connected.

He wasn't winning any points in her book though, no matter how many times they saw each other. In fact he kept digging himself into a further grave. However there was one girl he scored points with, and his mysterious and aloof attitude was the ticket there, for if he had spent time and talked to her, it might not have gone so well.

Then again, if he hadn't opened his mouth with Usagi, then things might have gone better.

However all of this changed, once more one eventful day and he broke all of his rules.

He was never a jerk. He may have acted like it, and preferred to be alone and on his own, and thought all the females after him were silly, but deep down, he did try to be a decent human being, in his non-there way. He wasn't obtrusive, he didn't seek attention, he shied from it. That's why when he ran into his complete opposite in every way possible, except for the decent human being part, it threw him for a loop.

The day started out simple enough, Motoki stopped by to drop off some homework, the day previous had left him with a massive head-cold that would have gotten him looks had he not stay home. So instead of getting attention for being sick, he called Motoki and asked him to pick up his homework. That was the first time Mamoru had ever made a phone call except to the grocer from his house phone, first time he called one of his friends, the word still didn't sit right with him, and the first time he'd asked for any type of favor, except to believe him when he lied about his parents and background, but he was paying them, so it wasn't really a favor. He even attempted to pay Motoki, but the blond would not hear of it. Even got offended and stormed out. That was the morning after the favor was finished.

Mamoru was feeling better, he didn't know how he got sick, he was never close enough to people to pick up their germs. However, since he was feeling better, he decided it was time to venture outside the house, there were no more sniffles or body wracking coughs, and out of the house he went.

His plans ruined for going to the arcade to pick up a coffee was wasted, as he blew it just that morning and knew he had to let Motoki settle down before he could begin to apologize, if he wanted to, that is. He wandered over to the park to enjoy the morning calm. It didn't last long as he was pulled away to go fight youma. The blond senshi making him do things he wasn't used to, calling to him, making him save her, making him want to save her. He enjoyed the feel of her too much in his arms and her thanking smile that was enough, even without the words. However it still remained that she wouldn't like him if he hadn't been saving her, she liked him not for him, but what he could do for her.

That was the day though that he failed in that mission. She had several senshi in attendance, all there to protect her, even if they didn't know it yet, even though she didn't know it yet. But he'd seen them, saw how they oriented themselves around her, even the one that put her down constantly. He was glad for it, because out of all the senshi, she was the one worth saving. Not that the others weren't worth saving, but if it came to a choice, she'd be everyone's first pick.

He'd saved her as soon as he got there, set her down and pushed her back towards the fight, while staying some place out of the way, but able to swoop in and save her again, if need be. He'd rather be in the middle of the action, and he'd done so before, but now there were too many players on the board and his sole focus was the shortest one among them and keeping her safe.

Her senshi even pulled her out of the way on occasion, saving her neck by the barest brushes of air across it, and he knew he needed to be closer, this was not acceptable, they saved her yes, but not early enough in his mind. Though his own saves were usually cutting it closer, a way to throw off the enemy, but always within enough time to be sure that she would not be damaged in any way.

He was not expecting the arrival of a new general, they had just put down the second one, or at least he'd disappeared for the last few fights and they imagined him as gone as Jadeite. This blond general was more annoying than either of the two before. He caught the attack before it could hit him and he flipped around to see who was attacking him. The other senshi and him had an uneasy alliance, and wouldn't let him close to the blond unless it was to save her, but they wouldn't attack him unprovoked, or at least he hoped so.

He crouched into a defensive position, ready to respond to any attack with one of his own, though he didn't have much in his arsenal beyond hand to hand combat and roses and a few very neat cane tricks. He heard a commotion behind him, but he did not dare allow this general one fraction of a slip in attention, the generals got stronger, not weaker.

When he smirked, and a gasp filled the air and a sickening sound filled his ears and head and he could even feel the impact in his own form without damaging him, and knowing exactly what it was, did he abandon the general and rush towards the fight. He slid to a halt, seeing the blond senshi stagger back to her feet. The other senshi threw themselves into the fight with relish now that one of their own had been injured and out of the way, she always got too close to unleash the full scale of their attacks.

The blue-suited one was trying to help the little blond, but her hands got slapped away, in an almost playful motion. He saw the words, even if he didn't hear them, and frowned, the pain was dying, but it was still a lie to his own truths. "I'm fine." How did two words ever get uttered in such a way for another to believe them, when it was obviously anything but honest? With a dubious look, the blue-fuku'd senshi went back to task and pointed at something on her screen to show the leader and then at the youma.

The girl pulled off her tiara and pulled energy into it, then unleashed it, it went straight for the neck, though the body was fully armored, when it tried to attack back, it reveled a small space where it was not protected. The disc took some of the girl's energy but sliced the head off and before it even left its body, it crumpled to dust. Though he still saw the blanch of the girl's features at what she had just done. He felt rejuvenated, and so he turned back around, ready to face the general, making sure no attack was aimed for him in the meantime, and the general was gone, not that it surprised him much. He turned his head, making sure he wasn't just hiding, but no, there was no trace of him.

He watched the senshi fuss over the blond, just as he suddenly felt himself wanting to do, and he squashed those feelings, he did not fuss. The girl had to be all right anyways, because he no longer felt the pain, and she was trying to reassure them, and they disbanded together. Mamoru left too, intending to finish his restful reprieve at the park.

Not too long later, he caught the familiar form of the girl he hadn't seen all day, her blond hair tied up into messy buns atop her head, with hair streaming from them in long banners. He'd seen the messy look on her a few times, it was just as cute as the more tied together look she had during the week. He saw her reflection pass in the water, she had not seen him and was hunched over as she passed.

He turned his head to watch her go, and realized she was protecting her torso from even the slightest wind. He rose to follow her, concern filling his being. They continued for a little ways, he didn't know why he followed her, just wanting to make sure she got home all right, he supposed. Then she was suddenly dropping to her knees, and then over her arms and her forehead rested against the ground as she shivered violently, trying to contain whatever it was that ailed her. She tilted again, onto her side and by then Mamoru was upon her, placing a hand on her forehead, but she wasn't burning up, she didn't even seem all that sick, except for her taunt features, and the shiver she still attempted to calm.

"Odango." He breathed, unable to trust his voice, but she didn't seem to hear him. He slid his arms under her body and picked her up. It was a short walk to his apartment and he took the back entrance, not wanting to deal with questions. He didn't know why he didn't take her to the hospital, and she wasn't talking, so he had no idea where she lived. He didn't even have his cellphone on him to call Motoki, in fact even if he did call Motoki, there wasn't a guarantee that the boy would pick up, seeing as how they'd left things that morning. In all honesty, the cellphone was probably more worthless than his house phone. At least that one was needed to call for food. He only now had one contact on his cell, and it was a man who might not be his friend anymore.

He laid Usagi gently on the couch and then booted up his computer, it didn't take long, but in the spare moment that he left her side to try to figure out a way to help her, she was darting off the couch and fumbling with doors down the hall. He jumped up and ran to try to help her, or at least stop her attempt to sneak one pass him, maybe she was worse than all the other girls after all.

However she found the door she was looking for after a few failed attempted and then found exactly what she wanted as she bent over the porcelain tank and emptied the contents of her hasty breakfast.

Mamoru was a little disconcerted with the prospect that she was not sick as he thought, but either pregnant or drinking or hungover from the night before. He preferred to think it was the latter. She may not even know if it was the former, if it were true. He steeled himself and walked in, pulling her hair out of the way, to try and help her. Maybe it was only a case of the wrong food or an illness that didn't give away other signs. He wasn't going to judge her, but she did need help, now that he'd settled his misgivings again.

When he pulled her hair away from her face, her temperature had sky-rocketed in the few moments he'd gone without touching her and the hair clung to her damp skin. When he moved the hair, he glanced unwillingly into the bowl, but found not just her food, but the color was stained red, as if she had gone to a stage pass a normal cleansing of her body. He frowned and he suddenly worried a lot more about her. This was not her body trying to fight off whatever was invading it. This was something a lot worse.

She groaned and pushed away from the toilet, her hand reaching out to flush away the evidence and she rose shakily to her feet, pushing her bangs out of her eyes. She groaned again when she caught sight of who had helped her. She started to slide again towards the floor but he held her up. She turned towards the sink and tried to rinse out her mouth. The water went everywhere like she was unable to coordinate her body, and knowing her, it was probably true on a normal day.

Mamoru helped her back to the living room, and set her down. But she looked queasy again and he ran to get her the garbage bin, patting himself on the back for putting a plastic bag in it not just this morning. There were no more contents to puke, but a splattering of blood came out and it made a sharp shiver go up his spine as he realized she could be dying.

He moved the bin once it looked like her stomach wasn't heaving anymore. He ignored her protests once she realized what he was doing and even trapped her hands over her head to keep her from hurting herself more. He lifted the end of her shirt up so he could see her stomach, and there he found the issue. He didn't think he would have been able to figure out the probably quite so easily, thought maybe he'd have to press lightly to see where it hurt. But there across her skin was a bruise so dark it was black and it covered from her lower ribs to her skirt's waist line and probably down further, he inched it down, keeping her privacy intact, but needing to know. It ended at her hipbones. He released the skirt so it sat back on the normal line and concentrated instead on what he could see without much hassle. She moaned pitifully and he pulled up the garbage can again for her.

"I need to call an ambulance." He told her, wanting to keep her as calm as possible, and knowing where he was in case she needed him. He disentangled himself from her shirt and released her hands so he could get off the couch to do just that. He looked back at her when her hand shot out with surprising accuracy and strength.

"No." She mumbled between rushes of blood.

"NO?" Mamoru responded back in shock, and when her head shook negatively, he could only sit and stare at her for a long time. Her eyes were fuzzy as they sought his, to make her case clear, she didn't want them.

He nodded and got up to find a way to help her for now, if she passed out, he would call them, what she wanted be damned. He heard her shift positions, but wasn't too worried about it, as he typed in blunt abdominal trauma and wikipediaed it. He only caught a glimpse of it as he looked back towards Usagi and knocked his chair over in an attempt to get to her quickly. "I will not have you drowning on your own blood!" He found her lying straight on her back and he quickly turned her to her side and ran a hand through her hair, smoothing it back away from her face. "What happened to you?"

"I ran into something." She mumbled and her eyes fluttered shut.

"Odango! If you fall asleep, I'm taking you to the hospital." He warned. He should have anyways, and he didn't know why he let her talk him out of it. Her eyes snapped open and she scowled.

"I hate you so much sometimes." She grumbled, reaching for the bucket, but nothing came out and she breathed a sigh of relief. He breathed a sigh of relief, hoping to take this as a positive step.

"I know." He chuckled down at her, and went to go get a bucket to fill with water and a few rags. He rinsed one under a cool tap and brought it to rest on her forehead. The other one he dipped into the water and then wiped at her bloodied lips and teeth. Her mouth was coated in it, but he'd help her deal with that when she was feeling a bit better, it was probably best not to stir up too much at the moment.

She sighed heavily and looked up at him. Her voice was hoarse and not very loud. "Why are you doing this?" She asked.

"Because you needed help." He used the clean rag to dab at her face, trying to cool her down.

"Thank you." She didn't look like she struggled to say it, like she was actually glad that he came off his asshole horse and that helping her came as a shock.

She didn't throw up again and after a few hours he, helped her back to the bathroom so she could rinse out her mouth and attempt to drink some water to wash away some of the taste. But not too much. He then helped her back to the hallway, but a glance at the state of his living room and at the night sky, he realized it was a lot later than he imagined. So instead he brought her to his sanctuary within his sanctuary, and laid her down upon his bed. On her side, at the edge of the bed and had the bucket within arm's reach and he rested a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll be back soon, I'm going to go get some things that you'll be able to handle in the morning. If you go to sleep now, I won't follow through on my threat." He hoped it wasn't the wrong thing to say, hoping it would end up having a dead blond asleep in his bed, but she nodded tiredly, and he felt drained himself, he couldn't imagine how she felt, though he was the one worrying over her. He pushed himself to do as he said and the worry still kept him moving. He found things that were energy reviving without being hard on her stomach or high in sugar.

When he got back, he put it all away and then climbed into bed next to her, but didn't touch her. It was a difficult sleep, but he managed it. He was only awoken the next morning because someone had swiped his extra set of keys a few days previous and a humming was heard as the bedroom door was opened. "I thought you might still be sick, having not seen you in over twenty-four hours, you push yourself too hard." Then the words died off and a gasp quickly turned into a growl as the man who had invited himself into Mamoru's home took in the scene before him.

Mamoru woke with a start at the knob turning and his eyes narrowed at Motoki. This was why he never invited anyone into his home, never breathed a word about where he lived. "Get out!" Mamoru snarled, even though she was only sleeping, fully dressed, and having not been touched the entire night, he was still affronted to see another man gaping at her at her most vulnerable, even if it was Motoki, who was almost just as furious with Mamoru as Mamoru was with the blond man.

"How dare you touch her!" Motoki snapped back. "She's only 14! This is way beyond the type of thing she should be doing at this age! You've taken advantage of her innocence!" Motoki was working himself up into a rage and Usagi moaned slightly, turning away from the intruder and towards Mamoru, which was probably a mistake.

"Quiet!" Mamoru snapped back. "You'll wake her!" Then he jumped out of the bed, fully dressed and pushed Motoki out of the doorway, who was surprisingly difficult to move, he must be getting weak if a mere human could offer some resistance. Maybe he wasn't fully over his sickness, it was the only way for him to explain it. "What are you doing here?" He asked, shutting the door and hoping to allow her some more privacy and sleep.

"That's all you have to say on this matter?" Mamoru had never seen the blond so angry, he was always so easy going and cheery. "You take advantage of an underage girl, and you only want to know what _I'm_ doing here?"

Mamoru could see it from his point of view, knew how it looked, but really Motoki should have known better, right? Maybe not of Mamoru, perhaps Motoki didn't know him as well as Mamoru thought, but he knew Usagi too well, too well to even begin to assume she'd jump into bed with any passing guy.

"You don't even like her!" Motoki took a different tactic, realizing Mamoru wasn't raising to the bait to have an all out fit at, because he wasn't denying it, he wasn't affirming it either.

"I haven't touched her." Mamoru finally grated out. "She's only sleeping. She fainted at the park yesterday evening and I brought her home, she's getting over some kind of bug or something." He was glad that the evidence contrary was still in his room, the rest of it had been cleaned up. "She and I both slept in there, because I didn't want to have to get up twenty times last night to check on her."

"Why not bring her home?" Motoki was slowly calming down, Mamoru was believable, but he still didn't want to trust too easily, and he wouldn't fully until he'd heard it from her lips herself.

"She was barely conscious enough to know who I was, much less demand directions out of her, which would have probably been faulty anyway."

Motoki's anger blew out like steam from a train and he slumped slightly. "Ok fine. But don't you think for one second that this is the end of this. I never want to see the two of you do anything but scowl at each other. She's too young."

Mamoru acknowledged his threat with a lifted brow and Motoki chuckled, having realized what he just said and to whom and who it was about. Mamoru titled his head forward just slightly to accept that blatant regard of his character. "So I ask you again, what are you doing here? And can I have my keys back?" Mamoru held out a hand and Motoki handed them over with a nervous chuckle.

"Sorry about that, but I wanted to be sure to have a set in case you died or something." Mamoru felt his heart warm slightly at that acknowledgment. Someone would have at least looked to find his body. "As for being here, I wanted to apologize for leaving in such a rush yesterday, I know you didn't mean any harm about what you suggested, but I wasn't about to be insulted for doing you a favor and expecting money in return. I had thought you knew that about me and our friendship by now, if not on our time together, at least by the first day we talked. Still, I should have allowed you to stumble over your feet in an apology." Motoki had a half-goofy grin on his face, as he'd just apologized himself.

"I should have known better. I'm sorry, but I am not used to favors, so I had not thought it to be anything more than paying you for going out of your way, like the gas money and hassle. If you ever need a favor, just name it." Mamoru didn't know why he'd said it, but once it was out, he knew he'd honor it, as long as it was reasonable.

Motoki eyed him carefully and Mamoru saw the slightest flicker towards the bedroom door and Mamoru clenched his fists, thinking Motoki had designs on the blond girl that had even a greater age gap between her and Motoki. Motoki already had a girlfriend as well. Then Motoki shrugged. "I'll keep that in mind." Motoki looked at his watch. "Do you realize it is around noon? That you're turning into Usagi?"

"Erg, that Odango." Mamoru grumbled, but good-naturedly. "Probably missed your roadrunner today?"

"Nah, the tornado didn't wreak havoc on my place of business today, but it seems that she managed to even sic on yours." Mamoru took a good look around and realized that there was indeed a mess, not too much of one, but prominent in his immaculate apartment, and the sad part was, that she hadn't done any of it. He'd been the ones to kick off his shoes in the entry way, drop whatever else he was carrying and then thrown aside the pillows for her at the couch, there he'd stripped off her shoes and tried to make her more comfortable. The strange thing was, he didn't remember doing any of that. His sole focus had been on the small, delicate bundle in his arms.

His computer was still open, though it had gone into hibernation mode and he counted his lucky stars that Motoki hadn't seen what was on that screen or the shoes by the couch before he'd seen Mamoru and Usagi sharing the same bed. He could only imagine the rage that would have built up then.

"Thank you, for stopping in, Motoki." It was both a thank you and a trying to part ways statement. Motoki realized it as such.

He hesitated by the door though, and looked thoughtfully up at Mamoru. "You will take care of her, right?" At Mamoru's slight nod, Motoki took in a deep breath. "Tell her to stop by when she's feeling better, I've got a special ice cream sundae just for her."

Mamoru nodded. "Will do. Goodbye Motoki."

"Goodbye."

Mamoru got set to cleaning his apartment, removing all traces of blood or Usagi he could, without actually removing the girl. During the night he'd felt every little twitch through the mattress, heard every little sigh and could feel the warm radiating off of her, and despite himself, he acknowledged that it was a good feeling. It was the first traces that she managed to firmly engrave into his apartment free from all outside forces, except for the last two days.

He took the trash can out to the dump and in the clear light of the day, he thought he saw the faintest glimmer of silver tinging the color of the blood but he shook his head and thought it was an effect of having too much sleep. He tied it in a knot and threw it into the dumpster with everything else that could have anything of her touching it before going back upstairs and rousing her awake.

When he got into his room, Usagi was sitting in the bed, her back against the headboard and she was panting slightly. She must have just woken up and even that small action had been too much for her. He reached out and moved her up into a more comfortable position and then lowered to his haunches. "How are you feeling?" He asked gently and she turned intense blue eyes in his direction.

"Feeling miserable, actually." She still had no voice, but it was to be expected after heaving all night, and he pulled out some juice for her to sip while he made her breakfast. He found her falling over herself as she attempted to come into the kitchen on her own. She didn't make it much further than the hallway before he'd found her and helped her the rest of the way.

"Why didn't you go get help yesterday, when this happened?" He asked gesturing towards her stomach. She blushed slightly, the red rushing to her features and he wondered if she was embarrassed for her lack of thought, and he wondered if maybe she hit her head as well. That would have explained a lot, actually, and he wondered why he didn't think to look for head injuries as well.

"I didn't think anything of it. It hurt for all of two seconds, the impact, but then it faded quickly and I was fine for another hour or so before it rose up and hit me. That's when I started stumbling home, and it was later that it got worse, and then I was suddenly here, in your place. Thank you for that, by the way."

"Why didn't you want to go to the hospital?" Mamoru turned around, angry that something could have happened to her if he hadn't been there.

"I knew it would pass." It was a lie to both of their ears and even if Usagi didn't flinch, he knew she would have thought it rang false anyways, that's how preposterous it was. "I- I just didn't, ok!" Usagi leaned against the table, in a near pout. "I don't like hospitals." She mumbled, having buried her head into her arms, and he could barely hear her.

Mamoru sighed and sank into the chair opposite of her. "We were both fools yesterday. You could have been seriously injured, the bruise alone looks fatal. We were very lucky that nothing more came of it." He had glanced over the article he'd pulled up the day before and it had hit him that she could have died, that she still might be in danger of it now, even though outwardly she looked fine. "You had internal bleeding, that's why you were coughing it up. That's why you didn't feel it at first. You could still be suffering from it. You may have even broken a few ribs, causing all of this."

"I didn't break any bones." Usagi shook her head. "I know that. I've broken ribs before, it doesn't feel like that. I'll be fine, watch in a few days, you won't know that I was ever hurt."

Mamoru scowled. "I don't like the sound of that, what are you saying, or rather, aren't saying?"

Usagi looked like a deer caught in the headlights for all of a fraction of a second and she shrugged. "I get hurt a lot, I make careless mistakes, trip over my own feet. It happens."

"Do I need to make sure you don't fall into the street in front of a car, or is that how this happened?"

"I'm not that bad. It's usually just a speed thing." Usagi defended, and he noticed she didn't try touching her center at all.

"You could have died, broken your back and become paralyzed or something. You need to be more aware of your surroundings and try not to get hurt. Promise me that, promise me, you'll be more careful."

"I promise." Usagi muttered, and Mamoru almost didn't hear it. Then her eyes flashed up at him angry. "Why do you even care? You've been nothing but a bully to me."

"Because I do." Mamoru sighed heavily. "Because who else am I going to have a verbal sparing match with?"

Usagi rested her chin against her arms and he wondered if it was because it was a natural position or because she was protecting her center even now. "I hate that even when you're being a jerk, I can't help but not hate you."

"You don't hate me?" Mamoru mused, did that mean she actually liked him, or was just indifferent?

Usagi nodded. "I find your offensiveness oddly endearing, though I still don't like it, but it shows me a little of the real you, the one that isn't giving the cold shoulder to everyone else but Motoki and me." She was sleepy and she didn't know what she was saying, he realized as her eyes drifted close and she continued talking. "Obviously I like the you with him better than the one with me, but I'll take what I can..."

Mamoru never let girls into his apartment and with good reason. This was going to be a disaster, as she now knew where he lived, and he let her out a few hours later, with more sleep under her belt, she was probably going to be awake all night, but it was the price she had to pay to recover quicker. He thought about following her, to make sure, but she was a lot more awake than she had been at noon and was insistent on leaving on her own, not even letting him drive her. He didn't even tell her what Motoki said or warn her that he was going to bombard her with questions.

No, he never let girls in, and for good reason!

Except she was never a girl. Or at least not just any ordinary girl. She was so much more than that. Even now, he just didn't know it yet.

_Flashback- Tokyo- S1_

He hated the dreams. They were the worse, even if he had once accepted them, accepted that they were there and ran like clockwork, that was the only reason he accepted them, and let them fit nicely into his lonely existence. He didn't want some girl calling for him, calling him to find her a stone, but he looked for it anyways, hoping it would shut her up. However the night that Usagi spent in his bed, he realized the following one, that he hadn't had the dream that night. It was only with the manifested reminder that he realized that he hadn't even missed the dream, not while he was worried over the girl in the bed, whilst he was enjoying the girl in his bed, amidst that worry.

The dreams went as the following... as he tossed and turned, plagued by them.

_Endymion... Endymion..._ He didn't know why she called to another, but it was his voice that responded.

_Serenity, I'm here!_

There in the shadows, only visible by the light reflecting off the lake, could he see even her faint outline, the turn of her head, as her jewelry caught the light and reflected it back, hiding her face from him. _My love, we must be together._ She spoke, and it was as if she was far away, but it might have only felt that way to him.

_Of course we shall! But how?_ He asked her, knowing he wanted it more than anything else.

_Find me the crystal... only then can I be free to do as I please, only then we can be together. Find me my crystal! _She sounded like she was begging and after a few nights of this, he felt like she was begging and demanding and was weak and was using him only for the crystal that she wanted, not that the crystal would really allow her to be with what she really wanted, which in his dreams, he always hoped it was him, but in the awaking moments, knew it to be something else. She did not want him, nobody wanted him.

It had been another few months since the unspoken understanding between him and Usagi, and even then it was exactly that, unspoken, and they often went over the line and insulted the other far greater than they had intended to. Well... mostly that was his doing, and she'd glare and fire would burn behind her eyes for his ill-treatment of her. Then he would open his mouth again and say something else that was stupid. To think it all started out because he thought she was like all those other pitiful girls. Those girls who now invaded his space at the arcade, those who dared. He was pleased to note that the numbers had dwindled down to the last insistent quarter, everything else he'd done, managed to shake them off, but he noticed that Usagi had caught sight of the fan-club and had used that to aid her in her own insults back.

However the dream got to be too much the previous night, between nursing an injured shoulder and being taunted at through the his television that he never used by the perpetrator. And the dream had still been insistent on coming.

The night before had been chocked full of adventure. Between running to rescue the girl who somehow managed to get herself tied up and not letting him know about it, to being stabbed by said girl only to realize it was a man he'd saved, and not just any man, but the General Zoicite who was pretending to be the little blond victim. If he had managed to time to think about it, and not just freak about her dangling by her wrists in a construction yard, he probably would have known something was off.

Then the real blond girl managed to get herself and all of her senshi, save the newest one, also a blond, trapped by yet another general, who happened to also be a blond, and made her give up the crystals she'd gotten from the human-turned-youma-turned-human to try and save them, but it had been no use, for the newest blond senshi was the one to save the day after all. He had been useless in the background, nursing his injured shoulder, the one that liked to throw roses, Zoicite had wanted to get close enough to do so.

So he had left were less of the crystals to give the princess of his dream, but it wasn't her crystal, only supposedly the ones to help form it. Zoicite wanted the ones he had, had gloated that he'd figured out Mamoru's identity and that they would meet, today. Tonight actually, in all places, the starlight tower.

Mamoru struggled towards the door, he was content that this battle would be down to him and Zoicite, though he knew it was probably a trap, he just didn't know how much it was one. He'd rather not be picked off to leave the blond senshi in the lurch, but she'd just gotten a new protector, one better suited at protecting her than the others, maybe even himself. He'd rather her be safe and at home, than in the midst of this next confrontation. He was nothing afterall, only her backup. This was his chance to prove he was something.

On his way to Starlight Tower, however, he came across unexpected surprise, though it shouldn't have. Whenever one of them were hurt, or even just walking the streets, they were like magnets drawn together to make each other's lives that much more difficult. Usagi spotted him first, and it seemed as if she was turning over a new leaf, as she slapped him on the back in greeting. "Oi, Mamoru-san, how are you?"

It was blissfully a day without his girly-fan-club, and he wished she'd gotten the memo. Though she'd never once been a part of that club, had been in fact, part of its opposing club, often joining a small selection of boys who hated him, but they hated him for reasons entirely unrelated to Usagi's, but they had been kindred spirits in at least the fake emotion. For the men suffered from jealousy, not hate and she suffered from severe annoyance, as she'd never truly hate anyone.

"Fine." He grumbled, she had caused him pain with that slap, though it normally wouldn't, but she had happened upon his injured side. "See you later Odango." He tried to temper it, so she wouldn't make an argument out of this small meeting, but he probably was too nice as she looked at him like he'd grown another head.

"Where are you going?" He bit back a swear as she followed him for another block, trying to figure out why he was so nice to her. He managed to loose her, or at least keep her shell-shocked, for another block, and he thought he lost her. He actually did, he found out years down the road, but she'd seen her hand and saw the blood and realized it came from him.

He just entered the building when the doors slammed shut behind him, and he turned to watch it, when he saw that her small form was just behind his, and he felt a sudden fear shot through him at the thought that this defenseless girl could get hurt, because of him. It was more than that though, it was _this_ girl that sent the fear shooting up his spine. "Why did you follow me?" He demanded, but it was too late, the ground started heating up and things were falling down around them, flames bursting out, forcing them in a carefully planned path, towards the elevators.

They ran, he pulling her along as she realized what was going on, that they were trapped and being herded. When they got into the elevator, the doors closed and he wondered if they'd now plummet to their doom. "You were bleeding. I was concerned" Usagi stated softly. "Why are you here?"

Mamoru cursed his luck to have the one girl who actually cared about whether or not he was hurt run into him today. She couldn't have done anything for him, and now he was about to lead her to her death. His stomach dropped at that thought and prayed that the senshi would figure out there was an increased negative energy spike in the city and come for her before it was too late.

It was too late. He could see the flames and energy spirling down at them as the elevator moved upwards to its destination. He battled with himself for all of a second on whether or not to reveal his identity or to let her get hurt, the idea was enough to spurn him on. Halfway through his transformation, he felt the call and it clicked into place faster, as he was needed. It was a laugh to think they were on the same page today. He turned to grab her and that's when they both gasped.

"YOU!"

It wasn't enough for her to just be his tormentor, no, she had to be the little blond senshi who was always in danger as well as being the girl he used as a battery towards all those who wished to claim him, when they didn't know him, the girl who knew him better than anyone else in the world because she'd seen him at his lowest and had inspired it.

They saved each other then, and he was right, it was a trap, just not for him. At least it had been meant for him, but opportunity came knocking for the blond generals and they used it to their advantage. Knowledge now too, on who the blond senshi was, as well as her protector.

His shoulder had already had one ice crystal stabbed through him because of the little senshi, and because of her, it happened again. This time however, she saved his life, and unlocked his memories, and hers, though she was never plagued by the dreams he'd been assigned. She had never even heard the name Endymion before then. Only trapped by a destiny she had been lied about, lied about her position at least and now was fully trapped in it.

Memories assaulted him then as she cried over his wreaked body. It was a night for revealing that was for sure. They revealed more than identities. Although identities seemed to have multiplied, first who they were as humans, then their superhuman form, and then their ancient names. But before all of that, or at least in the midst of it, they revealed there was more to their feelings than just begrudging each other, their actions proved it, even when words didn't.

It was on this night that Mamoru realized that little Odango-atama, was not only Usagi, Sailor Moon and the Moon Princess, but also a girl he was supposed to marry, had been so madly in love with in the past that he had given up his life for her, and while the feelings hadn't run so deep, or that he thought, he'd almost willingly given the same sacrifice again that night. And although it wasn't something that had just happened, but rather something that had been there all along, just only now realizing the state of things...

It was then that he found himself face down on the ground mourning the loss of his beloved clock.

* * *

EAN: So... by now you've all realized that this story is very zig-zaggy, and I hope it doesn't bother you. I intended for that to be the feel/style of this particular story. It's my native style, but I try to stop if from being quite so... all over... but this one I wanted that way, a full unleashing of my stream of conscious yet following a straight line approach. It is a MamoPoV and while he's a guy (so usually they're straight forward in their thoughts), its also close third person. So that means I can do whatever I want with it. Also, its all flashbacks, and intending to be rushed... I mean come on he's standing there looking at his wife and daughter in the field, readying for a picnic... it would be weird if he was standing there for hours going over every little detail that transpired through the years... haha...


	3. Part 3

Part 3

AN: _Should_ be the last part in this story... but then again, you never know when the ideas start flowing and fingers start typing... hehe... how are we liking it so far? I'll let you know at the end if it is the end or not. I surely hope so... I love this story and how it goes, but I have other things to do, and I want to be finished with at least one story that was never meant to be overly long... sigh... that's how it all starts, isn't it? Supposed to be a snap-shot, but then there's little details that needs to be picked up and snipped or expanded on... and then what do you know, a hundred pages later, and you're only half way done. Which is why this one is so funny, because I'm half way done and only 19 pages in... hehe!

AN2: Relating back to the beginning of the first AN, this story was supposed to end around the R season/Crystal Tokyo, but then some other little bug snuck into my mind... so we'll see how this goes down in the end.. At most... 4 parts, but I hope it doesn't come to that. It took 2 parts for season 1 so... we'll see... hehe...

* * *

_Flashback- Tokyo- Pre-S2 (Demando arch... no ali/ann in this story, or rather that might be when this all happens instead)._

The story of the previous year unfolded as it always did. Mamoru turned crazy and almost killed the girl his past self kept pushing for him to be with. Though her present self was different and a draw all on her own. She managed to stop him, destroy the evil queen and save the day. However he was injured in the process and she had to nurse him back to health.

Their relationship progressed... or rather it became a relationship, or so he thought. He had no reference to how relationships worked, especially in this day and age. Though the most prominent memory he had was the real version of the dream he'd always had, and knew that he had twisted it around himself. His past self had been pushing him to find the girl he so desperately wanted in his arms, that's why the dream stopped the one night he'd had her there.

_Endymion had seen her at the lake so many times before. Each time she was unaware of his presence until he announced it himself. Over time she began to suspect it. For it was only when she was here, was he able to come, but he didn't always come. He didn't always know when or if she wanted him to come. After the first time though, it was pretty clear that she did. _

_This time was different. This time, she wasn't expecting him, they hadn't planned on this meeting. She was only here to clear her mind and think and to grieve. The hardest news she'd ever have to swallow had been fed to her today and she was choking on it._

_Endymion's footsteps broke the silence she had created and she turned her head and he wanted to rush to her that very instant. She was kneeling against the bank of the Sea of Tranquility. The sister sea to her namesake. Her head turned towards him and running down her cheeks were crystal tears, sparkling in the light still reflecting on the moon's surface from the sun as the solar bodies continued to move. _

"_Endymion." She breathed, her lips parting and her eyes lightening. _

_He came to her and pulled her to him, kissing away those tears. "What is wrong my love?"_

"_I cannot be with you. It is forbidden." She clutched at his chest, he wore no armor, only a soft shirt and he held her there._

"_We've always known that." He soothed a hand down her back. "How has today changed?"_

"_Someone found out about us and told the Queen. I am no longer allowed to see you. Tonight shall be our last meeting or else I will be locked up in my room until I am handed off to someone else." Her head rested against his chest, between her hands. "I cannot allow that to happen. I must be with you." _

_Endymion ran a hand through her hair. "Hush my love, things will work out. You will see." His lips grazed her forehead and when she shook her head negatively he pulled back. "It will not?"_

"_It cannot. I am to be married to someone else." _

_Endymion's gaze tightened. "This is news." If they were to be married before she was pushed into another's arms, he would have priority, even if it was forbidden. "What can be done?"_

"_I don't know." Serenity weep-ed afresh. "If only I possessed the crystal now, I would be able to chose my own fate." _

"_I will get you the crystal." _

"_You cannot." She clung onto his chest. "It is locked up in a tower and only we can harness it and even if you wish not to, there could be repercussions. Forget the crystal my love. There will be another way. Find me, later. There will be a ball. I will stop here to allow you access." _

His memory showed him the truth, Serenity had only wanted Endymion and he begun to wonder if now Usagi only wanted Endymion and the only way to have him was through Mamoru. All he knew though was that Endymion wanted Serenity bad enough that he lied to Mamoru about what Serenity had pressed for.

It was with the first few weeks as Usagi waited on his weak form, a reversal of the life before the memories, that he suspected her of impure intentions, that it wasn't him that she came to see, rather the former lover. She had never been interested in him before. Though she took care him, and took pains to be there every day in a somewhat consistent time, but only chatted about insignificant things that she had seen through the day.

She never once touched him if she didn't have to, brought him soup that her friends or mother made, telling him that if she made it, it wouldn't help him any. Made sure he was comfortable and left not too long after she got there. She had taken the keys with her, he had told her to, so she could let herself in and out as she needed, there was an unspoken agreement that once he was better, the keys would be returned to him. She barely looked at him when she was there.

A new suspicion began to form. She wasn't with him because of the past, she was with him because she felt guilty for him getting hurt, though it was in no way her fault. That she had regained the memories that had never plagued her before and decided she didn't want him in return. Didn't want the man he had become to gain access to the man he was, because either just Mamoru was nothing, or both of them were in her eyes. He began to wonder if she hated the memories, the life thrust upon her. He actually liked them, it required someone _had _to like him in return. Then he started to wonder if maybe he was just fooling himself. No one had to like him.

Her presence in his life, from the very moment he'd seen her whirl by had been cause for amusement, and perhaps more. She always meant something to him. Usually the disruption of his schedule, but it was always something.

However he stuck to the relationship, because it seemed she was too, even after he got better and was able to walk around on his own and do small trips, she was there for him. She hung around. He wasn't sure if it was now because she had gotten used to it, though that logic failed to grasp him, Usagi never got _used_ to things. Another reason it could be was because her senshi determined it was all right, that she and him were to be together from now on because their past selves were, technically, if not officially. Though they seemed a little confused on their relationship as well.

Mamoru didn't know however that Usagi was just as lost as he was on how to conduct a relationship so she more or less just followed his lead. His lead was distant and cool so she forced herself to be as well. He never knew what her real desires were, he didn't even know for sure what his were. He knew Endymion pounded at his equilibrium wanting to get out and kiss the girl senseless. Kamen's one desire was to protect her. But Mamoru... the one in charge, the one that ignored all the others just looked at her as if she was some foreign object that needed to be studied and understood. Something he had failed to do so far.

The two of them just kind of passed the days along. Going places together as it was expected of them. Sitting next to each other in the arcade, no longer arguing and Mamoru missed it. It allowed him some form into her mind, now he had nothing.

They were polite to one another, nodding and asking with all the manners they knew how to use, which in many cases were slim, and basically ignored the other existed, but never being able to.

Then despite what their minds were telling them, or because of it, their bodies always found a way of inching towards each other, a natural magnetic draw that had his hand brushing hers as he reached for something at the same time she did, though he may not have even needed it. Or her running into him on the street when it wasn't planned. Or their thighs touching as they sat surrounded by her friends at the table.

None of the movements intentional. Or at least on his part and he was pretty sure she wasn't intending to do any of those things either, for she looked startled when they happened and removed herself quickly as if either she would be burned or he'd scold her for doing anything of the sort.

He always kind of missed it when they both reacted that way, the touch, not the reaction. He found it kind of funny when she did that. It also kind of made him sad, as if touching him was really a horrible thing. That she did it unintentionally and that she was only confirming that she was with him because she had to be. They never talked about whether or not they were a couple, they just kind of fell into it after their pasts and secret identities were revealed.

Still, fell into it he did. He kind of got used to it, allowed it to become part of his routine, even if that routine was non-existent and he was just deluding himself to think that it existed at all. He grew comfortable with it even as he still couldn't believe that it truly was a relationship, that she'd choose to even go along with it for a moment, much less the several months that she played along. He didn't know why she did, but he was happy for it, if only for a small glimmer of hope that it could someday become real. That what had been passionate, murderous love in the past, would be the restraints on her freedom, and form the arrange marriage that the past had not needed. Perhaps one day she would grow to love him, and he'd be something in her eyes.

_Flashback- Tokyo- Pre-S2_

Months slipped by, months that he wasted. He never felt that this relationship was real, that she would even bother to spend a day with him. He was nothing. She was everything. With this firmly attached in his mind, he bemoaned the fact that he allowed Motoki to talk him into spending the day _alone_ with Usagi.

He always guarded his privacy with a jealousy unknown to anyone else, that's why when Motoki suggested bringing her back to his place for a movie, Mamoru looked at his only friend like he had grown a second head, and then Motoki started laughing. "I thought you wanted Usagi and I to have nothing to do with one another but keep our distance." Mamoru grouched.

"That was when I thought you were taking advantage of her innocence. I see now, that you two are evenly matched in that field. It'll be good for both of you." There was a twinkle in Motoki's eyes but there was something else there, that he didn't share, and Mamoru had a sinking suspicion that it was worry.

That's how he ended up sitting on one end of the couch and Usagi occupying the other. They were both tense as they scrolled through the movie listings to see if they could find a movie both agreed upon for content and that Usagi hadn't seen already. "You watch too many movies Odango." He hissed under his breath as the task of finding a movie took near an hour.

"I already suggested watching whatever you wanted. I even lied and said I hadn't seen a few that I wouldn't mind seeing again." She sounded a bit terse and he sighed, his shoulders sagging a little.

"I know... but I'd rather you enjoy this."

"Then just pick one that you want to watch. I'm ok with boy movies."

Mamoru's eyes cut sideways at her, wondering what on Earth constituted a 'boy' movie? Who had she been watching them with, to know them as such? Wasn't she, technically, supposed to be _his _girlfriend? Wasn't that why he was going through the torture now, of having a girl-but-not-actually-any-girl, in his apartment, going through a list of movies he didn't care about?

He looked back at the screen, and scowled at it. Why couldn't there be a fantastic movie on there that Usagi _hadn't_ seen yet? One that wouldn't make him want to bang his head in frustration at the same time?

"There. That one." Usagi snatched the remote from his hand and as soon as it was gone, it was replaced. She looked a little bashful and scooted down the couch, back to her corner and pressed into it, trying to get as far away from him as possible. He had to admit, that hurt. "Sorry." She mumbled and he barely heard her. He wasn't sure why she apologized.

"This one?" He asked, even more unsure now what they were doing, why they even bothered with each other in the first place. A quick, short nod, had him pressing the center button, and looking at the description. It didn't sound half bad, and it had garnered a response out of her, albeit a response which lead to another one, that was a step backwards.

Then he clicked on it, the bill would come to him eventually. The point wasn't the money, or even the movie. It was the idea of doing something with the girl who was his girlfriend, at least in name. The movie ended up being pretty good, and the two of them relaxed slightly half way through, but they still kept to their corners. The funny thing though, alone, this was the closest the two of them had been since he regained his control over his body. Endymion, even evil, had been touchy. The other times they had brushed each other, they had been in the full company of not one other senshi but four, and often times a male as well. If he even looked at her weird, he'd be castrated.

Look at her weird he did, now, tonight. But not the kind of weird that the others worried about. He kept stealing glances of her, wondering what this strange being was doing in his vicinity, in his apartment and in his life. He never invited her here, except for the actual invite into his apartment this evening, and even then it hadn't been his idea. Somehow Motoki managed to put him in a position he wasn't allowed to say no or rescind the invitation, having to actually offer it himself or be in a very big hole.

He could tell she was nervous, she kept fidgeting, even as she seemed to enjoy the movie. She wasn't completely into it. He even noticed her casting what she believed to be sly glances in his direction. She didn't notice his own perusal of her, for if she had, she would have stopped looking at him, except for maybe the occasional one to see if he was still looking in her direction. He didn't know why she looked towards him, this was obviously an imposition on her time, and she had better things to do, actual things.

If someone were to ask him just as the credits were rolling what movie he just watched, he wouldn't be able to say. Just that he enjoyed it, but unable to say even what it was about. Mamoru watched Usagi reluctantly slide her feet to the ground and stretch, twisting and getting the kinks out of her young and flexible frame.

Mamoru followed suit, though not doing much stretching. He ended the movie and walked her to the door, noting absently that it was rather late. Much later than he had anticipated.

She hesitated in the door frame, looking up at him, almost expectantly, but he wasn't sure what she wanted. Usagi's eyes flickered down his chest and held there at some imaginary spot that suddenly held her fantasy and attention. She slowly looked back up at him, wanting to say something, to ask something but instead she just held his gaze for a moment and then nodded, once and swiftly, firmly casting him back to the nothing pile. "Well then... I'll see you tomorrow, bright and early before classes start." It was partially a joke, and then she turned around and left, as if the time they spent together was nothing to her. It was everything to him. It was something he didn't do, he'd never done before. After the way she behaved, he wasn't sure he'd do it again.

It was too hard for her to be in the same room as him.

When he turned back into his apartment he found the first thing she left behind. A lingering reminder of the intrusion into his life. However even as he looked at the item, he knew it wasn't a ploy to warrant another invitation over to his apartment, or a way to stop by unexpected. It wasn't a forgotten purse. This was something that she wouldn't even miss. However it was something he couldn't ignore.

There was nothing left behind the umpteen times she'd been here, but she'd never been invited over as a social visit. It was only fitting that this is when he caught sight of the one thing that would forever invade his life. A firm reminder of the very idea that he was forced into a never ending relationship with this girl, and no way to escape his fate. But he wasn't sure he wanted to, having her as his unexpected girlfriend, kept more of the other girls away than he had managed to do on his own, more than his arguing with her had done.

That was at least one advantage to the new awkward silence they maintained.

She left behind a single gold strand, shining brilliantly along the back of his mahogany brown couch. It glittered up at him like actual gold in a bright light with a dark backdrop. It was the first thing his eyes saw as he entered the room. It practically screamed at him, as it was the only thing out of place. He picked up the strand and wrapped it around his finger, the sheer length of it was massive. It took a long time to completely wrap and his original intention was to just throw it out, but by the time he finished, he as doing it half-heartedly and thinking something else while he finished subconsciously, moving into his bedroom, to change for the night. He forgot all about the golden strand that was now wrapped intimately around his finger.

_Flashback- Tokyo- PreS2- Fiore_

Things started to pick up slightly after the interlude with the movie. They never talked about that day or anything for that matter, after. Things though were still nothing by most normal person's standards. Sometimes, they would go do things on their own, but nothing happened. There was never any conversation about anything other than the mundane. That was only polite conversation anyway.

Mamoru was sitting with the girls when one of them mentioned Usagi's birthday coming up. The girl in question was not there, but had she been, she would have blushed to her roots, and told them to be quiet, it wasn't a big deal. Later she would have scolded them for putting Mamoru in a tight spot and they'd have mocked her, not understanding, he was after all her boyfriend and should have known already, _way_ in advance and had plans already. Then again... he was a guy, and they tended to forget, which is why she wasn't there and which is why it was mentioned at that time, only five days before the actual day of birth to be celebrated on its annual date.

Mamoru hadn't been sure why he got roped into sitting with them today. If Usagi wasn't there, he usually stayed clear of the girls. They had mistrusted his help, and he had never done anything to merit it, so perhaps he was a little bitter about it. So when the first mention of it was stated, he hadn't payed it any heed, he was too wrapped up in his textbook to care.

They brought it up again, casually. He was still too involved to care. When they over said his name about something else, and then repeated when her birthday was and what they had planned for a day after her birthday, leaving the day of her birthday open for family and anyone else that wanted to see her on that day. Usagi knew about the day after, she did not know the other gift that they wanted to give her. Neither did Mamoru, he only tilted his head slightly at the mention of his name and something passed into his mind among numbers and theories. The importance didn't register among all of it. However even if he acknowledged the words, he still wouldn't have understood the importance. Or why they repeated it again, with emphasis, the day of her birthday.

Or why when Motoki over heard it, he made a big deal about it. Asking what they had planned and then clamping a hand on Mamoru's back, asking him as well what he was going to do for her birthday, Mamoru only shrugged. When the five faces stared at him blankly, he finally set aside his book and looked back at them exasperated.

"What? What's the problem? Why are you not leaving me in peace to study?"

"Are you saying... you have... _nothing_ planned for Usagi's birthday?" They were all waiting, waiting for him to deny it, he realized and he didn't know why.

"No, I don't. What's wrong with that?"

The girls were just gaping at him and Motoki shook his head sadly, obviously disappointed in something and Mamoru wasn't sure if it was on his end or Mamoru's. Motoki dropped a hand onto his shoulder. "Don't worry girls, I'll talk to him. You keep planning for Sunday."

"You better not screw this up!" Rei hissed.

"If you make her cry-" Makoto continued and Mamoru started to wonder when he'd made her cry recently to warrant such threats.

"What's the big deal?" Mamoru grumbled when the girls shooed him away so only they would know the finer details of the plan. They called him over just to push him away and say irrelevant things to him.

"You and I need to talk." Motoki sat him down. "Now... about Usagi's birthday..."

–

So talk Motoki and Mamoru did. Unbeknownst to Mamoru, the senshi were also talking to Usagi, and putting ideas into her head. Ideas that Mamoru wasn't prepared for, ideas that Usagi probably wasn't even prepared for, but thought that she was inadequate because she hadn't pushed for it before, thought that it was her job to push for it, when they didn't do it. Didn't even talk about it.

It started out simple enough, the day before her birthday, which was as much as forethought, warning and planning allowed, although had it been any other girl other than Usagi, it might have been short notice, he asked her. "So... Usagi-san, I was thinking of taking you out for your birthday. Would you be willing?"

Usagi had looked at him for a very long pause, it took an entire heartbeat to go through its rhythm before she nodded. "I suppose so. Where would we be going? And when?"

"I'll surprise you on where. The when is Saturday morning, at 10." Mamoru covered smoothly, he didn't want seven pairs of eyes watching every move they made, making sure he did it right, or did it at all or did anything. He didn't want them following him. They were making him do this, when he would rather not, they wouldn't be allowed to spy on his actions, to see if he followed through. If he was going to spend time with the Odango, he was going to spend it on his terms. Though that logic of thinking was very wrong for many reasons, chief of which, was that it was _Usagi's_ birthday and so it should be on her terms. She hadn't been expecting anything from him, and so after their current conversation had to call a bunch of people to rearrange things.

Her parents were the only ones that didn't require it, or at least as far as she could tell, seeing as how there were seven hours between his pick up and their gathering. Mamoru had told her mother the when several days earlier after he'd learned of what he was required to do.

It was a shame that she didn't rearrange her parent's plans for the morning, before, it would have at least given her a few hours of unadulterated happiness. As it was, Mamoru failed her in this as he failed her in so many things that day and all days before.

He wasn't paying attention as he wandered the rows upon rows of flowers of many different species. He and Usagi were alone in this particular area, as they had been in the entire building and outlying grounds outside. Or at least he thought they were.

Still, when he finally tuned into her words, never once being able to ignore her physical location, and his thoughts were filled with her anyway. His thoughts had been on how they were completely alone, somewhere no one else knew they were at. At his apartment, even alone, if someone else had desired to try and stop him, someone knew where they were, Motoki, actually, and he wouldn't hesitate to kill him if there was a chance of anything else going on between the two of them. Not that any of them had to worry about it.

She said something that had been fairly insightful. Now she was saying something else that was interesting, but disturbing as well. "Forget-me-knots?" He asked, catching her last few words. "Aren't they to remind people when they've forgotten something?"

At Usagi's smirk, he looked at her, waiting patiently. This is the most intricate conversation that they'd had. It wasn't that it was more in-depth, but that it was more surface level discussion with a lot more underneath. He wasn't sure what either were really talking about. She shrugged delicately. "Oh... thinking how aptly that fits us. Too bad someone never gave us forget-me-knots a long time ago." She paused for a moment. "These are also used to symbolize true love."

He thought it interesting that she separated the two entities, especially as they could both be related back to their relationship, and not only that, but they could be even tied together. Forgetting their true love. It was a telling sign just then, one that he refused to dwell on just then as it was her birthday and Motoki pointed out the importance of not upsetting her on this day. It wasn't even the threat of death. He never really appreciated them, always a time of pain for him. So he stopped caring and celebrating them. Though there had been one birthday before he met her...

He glanced again at her face, unable to refuse his desires for even that one small moment of looking upon Heaven's finest creation. She was looking down on the ground, as if in deep thought about something, her mouth moved silently, mouthing words she was trying to say, but was unsure of. "What is it?" He asked gently.

"Well... I was wondering about that. True love. Us." They both had memories of the past, of time long ago, what they were like then, what they were like while Endymion had free range over his actions and she was manipulated by her own former self and what they were like now, even with the old consciousness in the background, there to be grasped or ignored.

"What about it?" He asked, it was a good time as no one else was around. He wondered briefly at the happenstance, or perhaps it was just the genial mood between the two of them now. He rested his hip on a nearby table, but it tilted his upper-body towards her.

Her tongue darted out to moisten her lower lip. "If you don't want to talk about this, it's ok. I understand, I'm not pushing for anything, I'm just curious more than anything else."

"Odango..." He stated affectionately, or at least amused. "Spit it out."

"I was curious about why you never try to kiss me, or at the very least touch my hand or come into contact with me at all, unless it is by accident. We never do anything."

He was staring at her, but she was looking everywhere but him. Her eyes were cast off to the side, and there was a light blush already covering every part of her exposed skin, and he imagined the unexposed parts too. That thought made his blood boil a little, and as he watched, the color got darker, and he had to shift positions to remove the uncomfortable nature of the conversation effect on his body. There was a slight pink tone to his skin as well.

He opened his mouth to respond, but she was talking again, talking over any ill-formed words he might have said, which could dig him in a grave any number of ways. "I mean, seriously, it's ok. We don't need to talk about it or go down that path. I'm comfortable with our relationship just the way it is."

Somehow, just then, an image appeared in his mind. It had absolutely nothing to do with their conversation and it had no way to spark this image, but this image it was. It was of Usagi, constantly near boys, them always trying to get her attention or affections if they had it, but she always being oblivious. Perhaps that's why she'd never brought this subject up before, because she was oblivious even now of what could happen between them, until someone else brought it to her attention. What if she thought something was wrong with their relationship, only because someone else brought it to her attention?

What now then? What would happen now that she was aware of more? Maybe she'd keep being remiss on the idea, thinking it only between a couple, but what if others were persistent? What if, she became stifled with this relationship, because he offered her nothing, because she had no background in it, and so was taken unawares, an innocent blunder, or a purposeful fulfillment. What if, someday, this was no longer ok, what if he became absolutely nothing in her life? She had options, and freedoms, she wasn't completely tied to him. If he didn't give her some way to stay with him, then she might try to escape.

So he had to give her something. "We could always try." He hoped his words came out casual.

She was looking at him now, looking confused, and yet hopeful. "Try what?" She asked a little tepidly.

"A kiss. It'll be a birthday gift." He hoped that would sweeten the prospect. It was something he'd wanted since the day he met her, but knew he would never get it, that he would never stand any ground in gaining her affections. He always thought he was nothing more to her than a burden, and now that she brought this up... he squashed down his wild thoughts where they were, she was just fulfilling her role as girlfriend, nothing more.

Usagi, in such an innocent Usagi gesture, and fully accepting, closed her eyes and turned up her face, waiting, but not pushing, letting him take the lead. He swallowed pass the lump in his throat, looking all around them, not wanting anyone to spy on this kiss. It would be their first one that wasn't under someone else's bidding. Usagi just stayed put, waiting patiently while he worked up the... whatever it was that he needed to work up to actually kiss the beautiful girl in front of him. Once he realized that they were completely alone, he started to put his hands on her and lean in close, about to fulfill the birthday present he'd just sprung on her.

Though that earlier thought started to creep in. She might leave him for another man because she never got to know what a kiss was. But then again, once she got this one thing from him, what's to say it wasn't satisfactory and that she'd leave him anyway? That knowing what a kiss was, what a kiss from him was like, would give her what she wanted, achieving the unattainable boy, and then wanting to go anyway, because she'd wanted nothing more from him than just that. Even if her notions were more honest, that she was with him because she wanted to be, then this would either springboard their relationship into another arena, where he had to be more affection with her, touching her and whatnot, or absolutely demolish it if he wasn't adequate. He never found out whether or not she'd had relationships before him, though fourteen, now fifteen _was_ a little young still...

He hadn't quite decided what he was going to do. Panic started welling up inside of him, and it suddenly didn't matter what his feelings for this girl was, how attractive and gorgeous and the pull she had on him and his body, if he messed up what he already had with her in either direction, no matter what he did, it was now a possibility. He could very well lose her. Panic continued to mount but he got closer still, wanting it, as the setting _was_ quite romantic, and the perfect place and time to do it. It was after all her birthday. The decision was taken away from him though, giving him the exact out he needed and yet somehow not being his fault for running scared. He didn't even need to tell her that.

For he heard a noise, and some muffled talking and laughter and knew that they were not alone, that they were in fact being watched. He escaped. He bolted out of the door and through the flowers. He stopped once he reached the outdoor fountain that overlooked a sea of flowers of different colors in their respected plots. He was saved a really embarrassing moment, no way he figured it, would it have been anything but. At the same time he began to worry that Usagi might get taken advantage of in that situation, face upturned, waiting for a kiss. Had it been a season later, and someone would have taken that advantage. As it was, someone did, but not the way he was thinking.

He also worried that she would be upset with him for leaving her like that, not even grabbing her hand and running outside to complete that kiss. He'd ran by himself.

As he stood there contemplating his selfishness, he heard a squeal and then a shout of "YOU GUYS!" It must have been her friends that he had heard. It was her birthday, he let her hang out with them, how they had found them, he didn't know, or even why they snuck up on them. What did they want?

While he waited for her to eventually find him and join up with him again, he thought pragmatically about Usagi and this place, his thoughts fighting with each other for dominance. He supposed he was projecting a lot of his insecurities onto her. It wasn't just his feelings towards her that mattered, for he had some strong ones, but also he felt it wasn't real, on either side. How was he to know any of it? He didn't have anything to base it on, except fleeting memories of a time long ago, which he sometimes didn't think _actually_ happened. It was all a dream. How could anyone die and then be reborn only once more so much later. However he didn't take into account her actions.

Whatever thoughts he had, had to be postponed, and they did crop up again later, when he had all the time in the world to do so, without the ability to go anywhere else. He had a lot of time to think, and think he did. But that was later. In the meantime, petals started to fall around him, rose petals. Red rose petals.

The area had reminded him of something, it was peaceful and beautiful. Usagi would have enjoyed it, he thought absently.

Then he heard her delighted laughter, she probably thought he did it, but at least it was a nice birthday present for her, even if it wasn't necessarily _for_ her. Darien though became suspect, it wasn't just a trick or a ploy or a romantic gesture towards someone in love. He could feel it, a new presence, one that didn't belong on this planet, and it wasn't the girls behind him. This one gave off both male and female qualities. Maybe it was one, maybe it was two, he didn't know.

A man appeared through the shower of petals. Usagi appeared at his arm, both vying for attention. The man gaining it. Not because Usagi didn't deserve it, she more than deserved it, but because the man seemed like a threat, and he was the only one standing between her and him, and he didn't dare take his eyes off the man who just appeared. Just _appeared_. Not walked up through the curtain of showers, but _appeared_. If that wasn't a give-away, he didn't know what was. Usagi had yet to notice anything that would be remotely related to a threat. Perhaps it wouldn't be against her, but it was suspect where this all took place, in an area abandoned except the senshi and Tuxedo Kamen, on Usagi'd birthday no less, her powers must have been spiking more than normal, and growing with the age as well, until she was an adult, they'd keep growing.

His would too, if they'd unlock, for even with his memories he knew they were not the way they should be. The petals disappeared and the man interrupted his 'girlfriend'.

"Did you just see-"

"Yo! Mamoru-kun, long time no see. It's me."

Mamoru's eyes were surprised at being addressed so. He heard Usagi's question, but he wasn't sure if he was answering her or himself. "No..." He didn't know him, or at least he didn't think so, and even if he did, it couldn't be...

"I kept you waiting. I apologize for taking so long. Now, let's go, I finally found you flowers you'll enjoy."

"Huh?" It was a stupid answer.

Behind him a few faces twisted not in confusion but in an odd mixture of disgust and thinking this man was odd. Rei's stance stiffened a little as he got closer to the royalty and she felt what he did. The other girls were just watching with avid curiosity, always aware of where the royals were compared to the rest. He was not used to being anyone's center of attention, nor having anyone care what happened to him. They still didn't, they only cared in extension to Usagi's feelings and the fact that he was a long dead prince reborn. The only one that might actually care was on his arm, and even that, he didn't know for sure.

"It's not like you forgot the promise, did you?"

"Promise?" He felt very dumb with his answers today, all one word, repeats. He really had a trying day between Usagi and now this man, who he didn't know but felt a vague recognition.

"Of course, the one between us, and the flowers I promised." He took Mamoru's unwilling hand and Usagi gasped next to him. Mamoru rolled his eyes internally, really, he had just been about to kiss her, and now she feared that he was going gay on her? Eh... maybe she had a point, he never did actually manage to kiss her and he was being very friendly with Mamoru, even for their culture.

"Um... you can't..." There was disbelief in her voice that she wasn't able to hide, and he wondered where her mind managed to pick up that knowledge of the world when she was so naïve about everything else. "Mamo-chan is my boyfriend, and won't be going anywhere with you..."

There was a second that complete fury crossed the other man's features and he acted before Mamoru could react and realize there was a very real danger in front of him. Hatred poisoned the man's eyes and actions and his hand shot out towards Usagi, who had brazenly put herself between Mamoru and the man, destroying all Mamoru's intentions of keeping himself between her and all danger, with her senshi always at her back.

"Out of the way."

They all realized too late what he was intending. If it had been anything more than that, then he would have beat himself up more than he already was. He could have lost her and he would have been too slow. The man back-handed and she fell down and not lightly, she landed with a painful thud.

Everyone was surprised at the action and offended, they all raced to her side, Mamoru getting there first. "Usagi-san!"

"Usagi-chan"s and "Usa-chan"s rang out too, but not from the person who was supposed to be the most intimate with her, and in some relationships, husband and wife never got passed last names while best friends had the most intimate names that might not have even been appropriate even at that level of friendship. It's not what he wanted, but he would work on it if that's what happened.

Mamoru's hands found more places on her body than any time they were together in this way, on her shoulders, arms, neck, checking for injury as the other girls glared up at the man and cursed him out for harming a girl, and secretly, for harming the supreme princess of the solar system, perhaps even the universe if they were really feeling honestly loyal. His eyes finally left the man as he felt him walk away, and his concern fully on the blond who should never suffer from even a bruise, much less such ill treatment.

"Hitting a girl's the worst!" Rei shouted at the retreating figure, and then he too disappeared in a swirl of rose petals. "I thought we had enough of that when Zoicite died."

The rose petals flew at them, biting at their skin and Mamoru covered Usagi and his face as it cut at them. "Fiore? Could it be?" He asked allowed as it all seemed to click.

Usagi looked up at him as he stared at the spot the man had once stood. Usagi thought he was worried about Fiore and reminiscing about the past, not wanting to be bothered by anything else, but in truth that night, as he removed himself from her side and entrusted her safety with her friends, for a sleepover, he really was berating himself for allowing any harm to come to her, and for abandoning her when instead he could have been tasting those lips.

He supposed he could have been with them, they were probably going over senshi business, and rehashing what happened today, and the strange asteroid in the sky, but he'd find out what was going after they hashed it out. For now he needed to give himself a serious dressing down for what he'd done and what he allowed to happen and what could have happened. He didn't trust himself to be in the same space as Usagi.

However if he knew what she was worrying herself up over, he would have stayed for a little while until decorum saw him out at the appropriate time at night. His manhood demanded it, as well as he hated when she worried over stupid things and not things that mattered, and even then he didn't like her worrying. He really should find a good way to get back at Rei, not only for her stint with the caterpillar but also her comments that night as he wasn't there to defend himself. She was just upset wasn't the princess and got him all in one night. Then again, she was also extremely happy she wasn't. All she had to do was die for her princess, her princess had a much harder life ahead of her than that.

Usagi knew little about him, but that was because she didn't press, and because he was a secretive person. Though she did know about his family, having caught sight of the photograph while caring for him, on one of his more lucid days. He told her the truth, having no need to hide it from her, and she gave him a promise that he was sure more than anything else that he made up, for why else would her head suddenly find his knee and rest there as she promised that she would forever be his family?

What he never told her though, was that in that moment, he felt like he was waiting for her all those years, but at the same time, why would he ever be worthy of her? Why would he even think that in the future he should deserve something like her to enter his life? Not even something like her, but something far-greater, her, herself?

Then he tore those thoughts from his mind, he didn't need anything, he didn't even really need her. He liked his peaceful, quiet life, or so he thought, and now that he had her, he begrudged her his time too. For he didn't really notice the problem, she just fit into his life nicely, or rather, what he didn't realize, he arranged everything for her, and his life fit around her nicely, as it was so empty before, he couldn't even notice that he was a lot busier running after her than he was used to. That everything became about her, rather than just hiding and wasting his life, no matter what his end lofty goals had been.

The day ended, and he hadn't even properly wished her happy birthday, or even a goodnight, he'd just said he thought he was going to go home, and the next day was Monday, so he probably wouldn't see her for awhile. He said he had to think, and he just nodded at her and wondered off after a short goodbye. "I have to go think, goodbye." Nod, leave.

She remained with her friends, watching after him. He felt like an ass, no happy birthday, no goodnight, no caress to reassure her, nothing. Now it was the next morning, and the girls were walking towards their respective schools, Mamoru was still at home, his day didn't start for awhile. He supposed he could have gone and met up with them and walked her to school, even with the onlookers, but frankly it didn't cross his mind, he didn't know that was something that people did or that he could. Actually it did cross his mind, but he squashed the notion as being a love sick, greedy, clingy boyfriend and that she wouldn't appreciate it in the least. She deserved some space too. He didn't want to overcrowd her with his desires to be with her every second of the day, so he did the opposite of what his desires wanted.

Then he felt her in trouble. She transformed and he didn't know why, they had no enemies. But he didn't hesitate, that was one time that he wouldn't fight his desires, because it meant her getting hurt. He was there, but it took longer than he thought. The enemy had been defeated, a flower youma, it seemed. But in the aftermath of the flower being destroyed, there walked Fiore, who recognized Usagi as well, even in her senshi form.

Something all enemies thus far had been unable to do. It made him nervous. Then the four senshi protectors were down with a flick of his wrist, they didn't have a chance in hell. Then he set his sights on Moon, and before it was just annoyance, now there was sheer rage in his eyes, his nails growing. "I'll have to make sure I get you good. You have deceived Mamoru, that is something far worse than being a pest in my hair like the others."

Moon firmed her stance and her eyes only got slightly bigger in fear as his nails grew to over 2 feet each, and sharp and strong and glinted in the sunlight. He pulled back his arm readying for an attack and he started to unleash it, but a red rose cut off his path, without touching anyone.

Kamen had stood in a convenient location, kind of ironic actually, among men on a billboard all wearing black tuxedos, white masks, and top hats, holding martini glasses, he held his hand up to one, pretending to blend in, his cape the only give-away but once he was needed he jumped from it, to a light-post to the ground, trying to talk sense into his old acquaintance. He remembered the boy now, they had been friends for only a few days.

It was clear that Fiore was going to kill Usagi. "That's as far as you get."

"But that's a rose- you- you're Mamoru! The rose- it's the promise, you didn't forget the promise!"

"That's enough Fiore, why are you doing this?"

"Why are you protecting her? Why would you seen solace in such a dull girl? She'll deceive you just like everyone else! She'll get bored and leave you too!" Fiore's words were what he always feared, but he wouldn't allow Fiore to think that he was right, and could get away with hurting her because of his uncertainty. Even if she did leave him eventually, she still deserved to live before all others.

"I believe in her, I trust her. You should too, believe in her and the people here on this planet." Though his words sounded hollow in his own ears, at least as far as the people on the planet were concerned, Usagi was the only one who really cared about others, took the time to really care about him, or at least he hoped so. He wanted to believe these things. He didn't know how he got so lucky to even have a moment of her time.

"No! She's tricked you! No one here cares about anyone other than themselves! I will tear away her spell on you!" Fiore pushed Kamen aside and pulled out a sword, running and flying to attack her.

Moon raised her hands, unable to move quickly from the position she'd found herself in and blocked her face from the attack. She didn't know why, nobody did really, why they protected that above all else, except for vanity and proof without further investigation. Though at the same time, the mouth, nose, eyes and ears were all important features to keep in-tact.

Mamoru saw two bodies collide with her, the felines she called friends, protecting her as much as their small forms could and then he was there too, his cane out and blocking the attack. The two had a battle of physical strength as Fiore hissed at Mamoru for being a fool, for being tricked.

"Stop!"

"You're being fooled!"

"No! I'm not being fooled!"

"I'll open your eyes for you! She's got strong powers over you, doesn't she, for being such a weak and boring girl!"

"The last person who could be tricked is me!" He said through gritted teeth.

"I will save you from her spell!"

The sword went flying towards her, but landed in the ground, burying itself deeply there and Kamen was overbalanced and fell next to her. Fiore's talons for nails shot out again. Moon was more worried about Kamen than herself as the nails shot forward, as he might have been hurt falling to the ground.

Kamen tried to shout for Fiore to stop, knowing he could not move her out of the way in time, he could only try to get between them. He covered her as best as he could, not even reaching her, but interceding the path, the nails dug deep into his flesh and he groaned in pain. The nails retracted and pulled from his flesh, and he fell into Moon's hands. She held him tight, but somehow he was ripped from her embrace. The one place he always wanted to be and it seemed fated he never would be.

Unconscious he remembered the time that he met this disastrous child not from this planet, even back then he knew they were from two different worlds. Even as a scared, lonely little boy, with no memories to console him, he knew that the strange little boy with brown hair and tan skin was from a planet not of his own. That when he cornered the boy, he admitted to the truth and revealed his true form, green hair, mullet, pink stripe, and pointy ears. They did not last long as friends, as Earth was inhospitable to the alien boy in many ways.

Mamoru thought he made the child up, as it was at the time of his weak memories, before the long drudge of orphanage and foster-homes and half-way houses. He had been sick too as he wandered the rainy streets and found the strange child that could change forms. Then it was another rainy day when the boy left.

Now he was back, intending to change the planet he lived on, owned and _loved_. "I don't want any of that." Mamoru tried to make the man see reason, but he was being controlled by his own female, one that wrapped herself possessively around him, in a way Usagi never could, and what was more importantly, _would_ do. If anyone was being manipulated or fooled, it was the sad, weak boy in front of him, one that never grew up. He would be better named Peter Pan, instead of Fiore.

However as Fiore talked about his travels through the worlds, searching for the flower he could bring back to Mamoru, which he assumed was the one on Fiore's lapel, Mamoru half listened, only trying to find the small key things that would help him in the end. The rest of it didn't matter, he was far too jaded even these days.

He was in a glass prison meant to heal him, and it was, and somehow, even completely surrounded in water, he was still able to breathe. It didn't seem to be messing with his mind like Beryl had tried to do, Fiore really wanted him healed and pure of thought, thinking that Moon was the only thing keeping him from being the Mamoru he had known as a small boy so long ago.

As far as Mamoru could tell, there was no real good way out of his temporary cell, as it was stronger than he could tell as he pressed against it, any normal glass would have shattered by now. He was also weak, receiving five puncture wounds to the abdomen does that. He might as well wait it out, he had no hope in stopping this on his own, not when he was so pathetic and weak. He couldn't even protect Usagi without getting himself captured. He was the weakest link, not her. He always saved her, then needing to be saved, and bringing the senshi into the trap set for them, killing them all in the process.

They were in the center of the asteroid, in ever direction there were flowers stretching out for a long time, and then it was space, empty, bleak space. He heard some shouting in the distance, and knew the girls had come for him, and he groaned, hoping that Usagi wouldn't get hurt because of him.

Then he heard Fiore claiming to never use Mamoru as a trap, which is exactly what he inadvertently did. Then he did what every bad guy did and was the mark of failure, he revealed his plan and intentions. The words he said only managed to infuriate the girls, as it threatened not only their livelihood, but also the people of Earth, the end goal, death to all the humans who did not love Mamoru, and more importantly to Mamoru, the one who might.

He knew they were in trouble. He could feel her expend energy after energy as they fought against those attacking them. He fought against his confines. Pressing, hitting, trying to pound his way free, she was using too much energy! Between the sailor teleport, and her princess hailiation, it was too much, and she was only making a small dent.

Then she stopped. He could feel her pain. Then he saw something disturbing rise into the sky, it was a vine rope, holding all of the sailor senshi. His gut clenched as Fiore electrocuted them. But he didn't feel additional pain, only the pain of sadness.

Fiore's powers were weakening, and he wondered what happened, the girls all fell back to the ground and Mamoru took a breath of relief, thinking that Usagi managed to weasel her way into his heart like she did everyone. Managed to save the day for a change the way she should, by the purity of her heart, and not having to fight.

But he knew Fiore lost his battle with the demonic flower as a bright red light shot through the sky and then ended. The force-field holding the glass weakened and he managed to shatter it with one single minded determination, save Usagi. That's the only thing strong enough to motivate him. The only thing that would ever motivate him, the only thing that would ever make him break any promise he held to anyone, even her, if her life was in danger, he would be there to save it.

He crawled his way towards the fight, getting stronger, little by little until he was able to scramble, by then though, it was already too late.

He saw and felt her energy being taken, it was pain as it was ripped away from her. She was almost dead, he could feel her hanging on by a thread with both hands wrapped tightly around that last little amount, refusing to give up. Then it stopped. He couldn't see her or them, but he somehow found the will to go faster. She was still alive, but just barely. He hoped her senshi would do _something_ they owed her just as much as he did, especially when it came to ending loneliness.

They must have, because she was still alive as he crested the next hill. He could see them, they were all tiny dots amongst the sea of pink, but that made them stand out clearer than if it had been any other color. Moon was laying stretched out on her back on the flowers, and any other time, any other situation, and it might have turned him on, but as it stood, Fiore was taken over, the woman in the flower wrapped around him, giving him extra limbs, and he was using them as spears, reading to end her existence.

He had to get closer, from this distance, he would be ineffectual. Something the girls said, stilled his hand and he seemed to be considering their words, but he saw pink surround Fiore and then it was over. He had decided. So too had Mamoru.

He had tried to reason with his old friend, but now he had forced his hand. He had to not only chose between the two of them, but he had to chose who lived and who died. It was an easy choice to make, and he didn't even need to think about it.

It was a dangerous game he played, just getting there in time to throw a rose at the heart of the man who was trying to take his. The rose found its mark, and he prayed none of the tentacles did in return. Not one penetrated the prone figure lying on a sea of flowers. They grazed her skin, but none marring the flesh. It was a very, very dangerous game and situation, and he almost lost her due to not acting fast enough, had the rose been earlier, the sharp ends wouldn't have even left the body.

Fiore was greatly troubled by Mamoru's actions. He returned to his normal form, and all of the flowers disappeared. The girls spoke, even as Mamoru collapsed to his knees, and they spoke of being done, that they were saved.

However that wasn't the last of Fiore, now he was pissed, at _everyone_. Fiore planned to kill them all and the flower woman was going to take over the Earth. They were all going to die on this rock because Fiore couldn't have Mamoru. He saved her again, only to be the cause of her death, again. Then she managed to find the willpower to defeat the haze in her eyes, and attempt to use the crystal to save the day, once and for all.

Fiore interceded her plans, angry that she would dare disrupt his _again_. He grabbed at her broach, pulling it and releasing her costume, and Mamoru had to force himself to look away from the tantalizing view as ribbons floated around her as her only defense against being naked.

Mamoru coughed into his fist, and turned his attention to the man with his thumb pressing against a creamy mound and the fingers on her sternum. He had to remove his hand soon or he _would_ die this time. The only reason he wasn't already dead was because Mamoru knew that the action had no undercurrents, not towards Usagi at any rate.

The man towered over Usagi like a bad anime graphic game and she reached up with both hands to wrap around his wrist. She didn't hold him firmly, or trying to tear him away, not like many would react. She was looking at him calmly and with warm caring in her eyes. "It's ok, you're not alone."

"That's all lies, you're only pretending to be nice, you don't care, no one does, least of all you!"

Mamoru watched Usagi grunt in pain and then time seemed to stand still as they stared at each other, her silver light enveloping both of them in soft tones. Mamoru tried to breach it, but he was pushed back, but it was as if gentle hands were turning him around and shooing him away. That felt pretty typical to him, he'd just never had her do it to him, and it felt like the first in a long line to come.

He began to fret about what she was expending unnecessary energy for. Then the light changed, and Fiore pulled back his hand as if burned. "The flower, it came from you? Who are..."

There where his hand was, was her crystal, but it changed shapes. In its place was a silver rose. The long ribbons still streamed behind her, and then Fiore and the flower-woman were gone. It took a long moment before Usagi raised her hands to her chest and pulled the crystal form its case, and then in Usagi/Sailor Moon's place, for she was both and neither at that moment, Serenity took her place. As Usagi called to Mamoru, as Sailor Moon called to Tuxedo Kamen, Serenity called forth almost instantly his Endymion form, who had to protect his love, and even though Mamoru loved Serenity in some ways, it was even different than how he loved Usagi, how Endymion loved Serenity, Endymion belonged to Serenity, it wouldn't be right if it was anyone else watching over her or standing by her side.

They banded together to help Serenity, and every time a part of their powers mingled with hers, she was able to push her limits and theirs just a bit further. This though was the furthest she had pushed herself, and she saved the planet, and saved her friends. However she couldn't save herself, Endymion could feel her sag under his hands even before her knees gave out and she collapsed back into Tuxedo Kamen's arms, her form returning to Sailor Moon's. The crystal shattered and her eyes faded as she lost what little energy she had clung to, instead flinging it out of her to save the rest of them, with no regard for herself.

They were on the asteroid, staring down at her lifeless form, the one that meant so much to all of them, the one that had brought each out from the loneliness they were feeling all their life, and giving them a family. That's what they were now because of her, a dysfunctional family that seemed to work.

Mamoru felt every part of him fizzle with shock as he realized that he could loose her. That the crystal couldn't bring her back every time, couldn't save her. Even her strong heart, stronger than any other heart in the entire universe, wouldn't be able to sustain her. All the wasted moments he had with her, all the wasted breaths and thoughts and actions, not the ones he actually managed to do something, but rather the ones that he didn't take full advantage of. Like the morning before, when she presented him with the opportunity to kiss her, and he neglected it, because he didn't want to be seen by all the others, seen by people he didn't know were truly there, watching them, and even if they were, he had no way in knowing that he knew them, what did it matter if strangers saw him kiss her. They should be envious of it, that he was able to kiss and claim such a perfect girl.

He could only stare at her, unwilling to believe he finally got what his heart demanded of him, just to loose her within the same few short months. Hearing a voice he never expected to hear again, he looked up in surprise, the only thing that could pull his attention away from the girl in his arms, cooling even as he breathed in disbelief.

"You both saved me again, now it is time I returned the favor and give you the flower which I promised you." With a flick of his wrist, he presented a flower that looked vaguely like a lily. "This is the flower of life, it contains all of my energy. I would like to give this to her, who gave me so many more years than I believed possible, and for the knowledge that somewhere out there, someone cared for me."

Mamoru didn't refuse it, just earlier that day he had made the choice between one life and another, and he chose it again. Though this time he wasn't taking it by force. "Thank you." Mamoru breathed as he fed her the energy the way of fairy-tales. By using his lips to breath Fiore's life energy into her. His lips pressed against petals, but it wasn't that of a flower, but rather her soft lips. It was only fitting in an ironic sort of way that it was the boy Fiore that gave up his energy at last, as children were known for energy, rather than an old man with all the energy sucked out of him.

So much energy had dissipated due to Fiore's actions, sucking out Usagi's energy, energy she could have used to stop the asteroid and not need anyone's help to do it, and thus no one would have died, except maybe the tiny flower-woman. But no, he sucked it up, and then destroyed those in which he would have fed it.

Mamoru felt lips twitch under his and it wasn't in response to a kiss, but he'd take it, it meant that she was coming back to life. He wondered if all the people who gave their life for her, somehow left an impression on her, making her stronger, not because of memories, but lingering power residue that would never go away, or if her dying so many times and coming back to life made her grow in power because she kept pushing her limits?

When he attempted to pull away, to allow her breath, she kissed him back, and this time he knew what it was, he lingered for longer than necessary, knowing the girls were watching, but not understanding any of it. Then he pulled away and a weak Usagi looked at her friends with an equally weak smile. "Minna... I told you I would protect everyone."

There were faces all around her that were a mixture of sadness and tears and happiness and tears. Some were probably mildly frustrated or ridiculous thoughts at Usagi for the scare she gave them. Her name was echoed around the group, happy that she came back to life, and Mamoru leaned down and whispered in her ear. "Usagi-chan." Then he brushed his lips against her flesh there and she blushed lightly.

"So... how do we get down? Not that I'm not enjoying it, but I worry about whether or not this air bubble will last long."

Everyone chuckled at Minako's question, but it was something they seriously had to think about.

Usagi and Mamoru weren't paying the rest of them any heed, they had both been injured, battered and bruised, not to mention energy sucked out of one to the point of death and they couldn't take their eyes off of each other.

Somehow they got off, the girls formed a sailor teleport around the royals, and brought them back down to Earth, quite literally and in Mamoru's case, figuratively too. His brain started to work out exactly what happened, and as he kissed Usagi goodnight, a few feet away from the curve heading towards her house, he still could die by gunshot wound, he relished the new boundary he got to set with her, though it was only a light peck on the lips. She didn't seem disgusted by it or in anyway repulsed or secretly wishing he wouldn't. She seemed to enjoy it. He watched her head in through her gate and then up to her house.

One thought firmly lodged in his mind, something that Fiore had managed to show him with his seemingly innocent desire to be loved and love Mamoru. Usagi kept getting hurt because of him, all of the enemies thus far, attacked her to get at him, and not even to kill him, but to get him on their side, to kill her to keep him. What's to say that the next enemy wouldn't be the same, or kill her to kill him? He managed to save her these times, yes, but it only put her in further danger, she died now three times because of him, saving him from the enemy. He was dangerous to be around. He wouldn't make the same mistake again. The next enemy they faced, he promised himself he would not be the cause of her death. He would ensure that she lived.

* * *

EAN: Erg... I wanted to keep up the way I wrote the first two parts, but I also needed to be very careful with the Fiore section, it sets the tone for the rest of it... I hope you didn't mind, or maybe even liked it... So... what do you think?

EAN2: I image the situation with the rose and Mamoru and Usagi instead of saying, 'Congratulations' which only kind of makes sense as a little girl mixing up her phrases, she says: "Here, she won't miss one. It's for you." Or something along those lines. Its funny too how each translation is so slightly different that it makes no real difference, except for what you can do with it... hehe...

EAN3: Aye, 4 parts... at least that's what I say now... erg...


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